Joe Rogan Experience #2489 - Ryan Bingham

0:01 Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

0:03 The Joe Rogan experience.

0:06 TRAIN BY DAY, JOE ROGAN PODCAST BY NIGHT.

0:08 ALL DAY.

0:12 What's happening, man?

0:13 Good to see you.

0:14 Yeah, good to see you, man.

0:15 All right, to the microphone, sir.

0:17 All right.

0:19 Um you were[ __] great at that McConaughey thing last year.

0:23 I really enjoyed that.

0:24 That was my first time seeing you perform live.

0:26 It was really cool.

0:27 That was very cool.

0:28 You're so relaxed up there, man.

0:30 So it was like you brought everybody into a nice like comfortable chill vibe.

0:35 It was cool.

0:36 I'm glad you guys felt felt that way.

0:38 Sometimes it's it takes me a minute to get into the groove, you know.

0:42 Yeah, but it felt like that, you know, like felt like you were in it.

0:45 Like it brought us brought the whole crowd into it, too.

0:47 That that event that he does, the two events,

0:50 the one the singer-songwriter one and then the other

0:52 one with the the auction and everything, they're so cool.

0:55 Such good events.

0:56 Yeah, they're good people, too, you know.

0:58 It's uh I really grown to just appreciate the community around here

1:02 in Austin in the Hill Country area and all of that stuff.

1:05 I definitely uh wouldn't have the career, I don't think,

1:09 if it wouldn't have been the for the community around here

1:11 that just supporting songwriters and music in the way that they do.

1:14 It's pretty incredible, you know.

1:15 When they get behind anything, it's just like it just feels so good to see

1:19 that many people come together and and you know, have that support, you know.

1:23 It's a really good place, man.

1:24 Austin is a really good community.

1:26 It really is.

1:26 A very positive place in a lot of ways.

1:29 Yeah.

1:29 I mean, nothing's perfect.

1:31 There's no perfect places, but it's it's really good.

1:34 Yeah.

1:34 I like it so much better than when I was living in California.

1:37 It just feels like real people.

1:39 It's just I miss it, man.

1:41 I mean, I'm I'm I'm in the process of moving back to to Texas as well.

1:45 Where you at right now?

1:46 Uh outside of Dallas, Texas, out by Tyler.

1:49 That I've been I've been in Topanga Canyon in LA for years, you know.

1:53 So I've been in the middle of it and um Um Doing that Hollywood thing.

1:56 Every time I get across the state line,

1:59 it's just like that weight comes off and you're just like,

2:01 "Ah, man, I'm I'm home, you know?" So, yeah.

2:04 Did you have the coolest[ __] character on Yellowstone?

2:08 It was such It must be so fun to play.

2:10 It was so much fun, man.

2:12 I had the I I laugh I always talk about it.

2:14 I got I felt like I had like one of the easiest jobs there, you know?

2:17 It's cuz my the character was kind of a smaller role, you know?

2:20 Most of the time I I'd work like one or two days a week and then

2:23 the rest of time I'd just be like fly fishing and get lost in the mountains.

2:27 In the mountains and just disappear out there, yeah.

2:29 It was awesome.

2:30 God, Montana is awesome.

2:31 That show made so many people move out there, though.

2:34 I don't know.

2:34 You better take your license plate off your car before you go.

2:37 Right, you better not have a California plate.

2:40 They'll[ __] write things on your hood.

2:42 Run you off the road.

2:44 Yeah, they get upset.

2:45 It's very interesting.

2:46 They're very proud to be from Montana and they want to keep it to themselves.

2:49 Like, let it go,[ __] We're all Americans, all right?

2:53 If you got a good spot,

2:54 you should be happy that people from California figure it out.

2:57 Yeah.

2:57 Don't be a dick.

2:58 Like, you're American,[ __] You're not It's not the United States of Montana.

3:03 Shut the[ __] up.

3:04 I guess it's kind of anywhere, right?

3:05 You know?

3:06 Not that much here.

3:07 Yeah.

3:07 Here's pretty inviting.

3:09 I've never had that experience here.

3:12 Not really.

3:13 Texas is a pretty friendly place.

3:15 Yeah.

3:16 And there's so many different walks of life that have

3:17 that have been here for so long, you know?

3:19 I think I've Yeah.

3:21 In Montana and stuff, man, if you were tough enough to survive those winters

3:24 and stake a claim up there back in the day,

3:26 you had to fight for it and they're still fighting for it now, you know?

3:29 That does make sense.

3:30 I mean, that's also one of the things that's highlighted

3:32 by the whole series of the all the different Yellowstone series,

3:35 the older ones with Harrison Ford and, you know,

3:38 it they really do explain in a lot I mean,

3:41 it's kind of a a cool chunk of history to see like how this all got started.

3:46 How the kind of people that had to survive out there when,

3:50 you know, you all you had is a fireplace.

3:52 Yeah.

3:53 That's it.

3:53 You got a fireplace.

3:54 You know, I love all those mountain end stories,

3:56 you know, Jim Bridger and all that stuff.

3:58 It's just like, man.

4:00 And there is something you get up there

4:01 in those mountains they get into you gets in mountains

4:04 get into your bones it gets into your blood

4:06 and it's a it's a different thing, man.

4:08 I It's a spiritual place.

4:10 It is and it's also it's like the most potent art.

4:15 Like it's it's nature's art and you don't think

4:18 of it as art but God it it's so beautiful.

4:22 It's like stun Like sometimes when you're up

4:24 there you just have to stop and look like, God this is gorgeous.

4:28 It's so overwhelming if you haven't been there.

4:30 It gives you a feeling.

4:31 It's like it's a almost like a drug

4:34 that hits you because of the beauty of it all.

4:36 Like you take it in with the blue sky and you see the clouds

4:39 and the mountain and maybe there's a lake

4:40 below you in the canyon and you're like, God this is gorgeous.

4:45 It's like you're you feel it in your your DNA, man.

4:48 Mhm.

4:49 It's like your your body knows like this is a fertile

4:52 beautiful place that's filled with life and this should excite you.

4:56 So all your natural human reward instincts are

5:00 all like this is a place I should be.

5:02 Yeah.

5:02 Like look at the sky, look at the lake, look at the mountains.

5:06 This is fertile.

5:07 This is like life-giving.

5:08 Yeah.

5:09 Yeah, several years ago um I went to a guide

5:12 school up there and I got a hunting guide school.

5:16 Mhm.

5:16 And uh it was a whole pack squad but it

5:18 part of it was I grew up cowboying and ranching

5:20 but I've never really been up there in those mountains

5:22 like that and I'm my dad had always fantasized about that.

5:25 We'd talk, you know,

5:26 one day we're going to go on like a pack trip up in Montana and you know,

5:29 we'd watch all those movies like Lonesome Dove and all of that stuff.

5:32 So it was always just kind of a daydream and um years

5:36 ago I was just kind of overwhelmed with music stuff and all

5:39 that and didn't what know what I was going to do and ended

5:41 up I just wanted to go up there for a trip, you know,

5:43 maybe go on a pack trip and I started looking up places and I

5:46 found this uh place called Royal Tine

5:49 Outfitters and they're like, "Yeah, you know,

5:51 we could come up and you can take take you on a pack trip ready,

5:53 but we also have like this 6-week school,

5:56 you know, that you can train to be a guide.

5:59 It's all uh mule pack and all kinds of stuff, you know, and so I was like,

6:03 "Man, I'm going to sign up for that, you know?" And it was life-changing.

6:06 There was only six of us in the class and um you know,

6:10 spent weeks back in the back country packing mules and horses and Oh, wow.

6:15 What we just tie a rope between two trees with a tarp for sleeping at night

6:18 and always post up a couple of guys to watch over the horses at night.

6:22 And I remember one morning I woke up and it was in June, you know,

6:25 but we were way back in there and uh I woke

6:27 up and the snow was coming down and I I just kind

6:30 of raised my head up and I was looking out

6:32 at the horses and the snow was just falling down on their backs.

6:35 And there was that moment in me I was like,

6:38 "I don't know if I'm ever going back." I was like,

6:42 "God, this is right where this is where where I need to be." Right.

6:46 It was it was tough to come back to uh civilization after that.

6:50 I think we're doing something with ourselves to ourselves with civilization

6:55 that we can't really fully appreciate because we're wrapped in it and it's

6:59 not until you get to nature where all that weight just gets

7:02 lifted off of you and you feel more normal and you're like,

7:06 "Oh, this is where people are supposed to be." Yeah,

7:09 you know, no phones, there's no nothing,

7:11 no distractions and it's just like you all your senses heightened,

7:15 your eyesight, your hearing, your sense of smell,

7:18 like all of that stuff and you know, I remember going into it,

7:22 you know, I I I didn't know what to expect really.

7:24 I've done some camping and things like that and grew

7:26 up ranching and all that, but this was

7:28 a way different deal and I remember I just

7:30 had this like backpack full of gear, you know,

7:33 and by the time I got out of there, like I just felt like all I needed was

7:37 a pair of scissors and some way to start some fire,

7:40 you know, and all this stuff about it.

7:45 Yeah, I follow this one dude.

7:47 God, I'm trying to remember his name.

7:49 Clay Let me Let me pull it up because uh I really enjoy his uh his videos.

7:55 But, this dude uh he lives uh I believe he lives in Alaska,

7:59 but he does a lot of trips in America, like all over America Mhm.

8:03 in the lower 48, and he goes and like

8:08 lives by himself in some kind of harsh environment.

8:11 Like, he's done it in the swamps.

8:14 Clay Hayes.

8:15 That's it.

8:16 Does he like take his kid out there?

8:18 Uh he I believe he has.

8:19 He's taken his dog.

8:21 But, a a lot of times he just goes entirely by himself.

8:26 Mhm.

8:25 And uh they're very very interesting.

8:28 Like, he starts his own fire.

8:30 He'll figure out how to get food.

8:32 He figures out how to purify water.

8:34 He's taken salt water and made his own thing that kind of distills it

8:38 into fresh water removes the salt like very slowly by using uh a piece

8:44 of bamboo and fire and boiling the water in the bamboo so that like

8:48 the water evaporates and then drips down

8:51 and it doesn't have salt in it apparently.

8:52 Yeah, I love that stuff, man.

8:54 I love it.

8:54 Just to have those skills, just to know how to do it,

8:56 like whether you'll ever need it or not, just to know how to do that.

9:00 It's just so cool.

9:01 I remember um in that that guide school,

9:04 there's a lot of different parts to it, which was so cool.

9:06 It's like we did a whole week of like back country um like wilderness first aid.

9:12 You know, you had guy had a paramedic come in and teach us all this stuff.

9:15 And then was a whole week of just like leather work.

9:17 There's a whole week of shoeing horses.

9:20 There was uh fly fishing and entomology

9:22 and all these just kind of little skills.

9:24 But, one thing that really stuck with me was uh uh a fire building uh kind

9:30 of drill when we we started when it was kind of right when we first got there.

9:32 And it was pretty wet and it'd been snowing.

9:34 And um And only six of us, you know,

9:36 and we're guys from kind of all over the country.

9:38 And I grew up in New Mexico and West Texas,

9:41 where it's pretty dry, you know, and you kind of build a fire,

9:44 you can kind of just take some little small

9:46 twigs and get a little fire going, you know.

9:48 And so he goes, "All right,

9:49 you got 2 minutes to build a fire and you need to have, you know,

9:52 like a flame to be 3 or 4 ft high." And man,

9:54 I'm running around grabbing like little sticks and twigs,

9:57 and I'm just and we have a lighter, too, you know.

9:59 I'm just struggling.

10:00 It's just smoking and they can't get it going.

10:02 And I look over and there's a kid from Alaska in the class,

10:06 and he just runs over to this big dead pine

10:09 tree and just breaks off the biggest branch of dead,

10:13 you know, pine needles and takes his lighter and just

10:17 within like 5 seconds has this massive fire going.

10:20 I was like, "Okay, that's how you do that, you

10:22 know." And it was so just the littlest things,

10:25 you know, that to have that knowledge, you know.

10:27 And and part of it was, you know,

10:28 he was explaining to us that the instructor was like, "Yeah, you know,

10:30 if you're out here with your guide and somebody that's hunting,

10:33 maybe he's an elderly guy or somebody gets hurt,

10:35 and you get caught back in the mountains and it's snowing,

10:38 it's like you better get a fire going and keep him warm real quick,

10:40 you know." So it was always a, you know,

10:42 a reason and a purpose behind it, which was really cool.

10:45 And I'll never Those are some some

10:47 of the things I'll I'll never forget, you know.

10:49 Did they teach how to start fires with like a piece of metal and like flint?

10:54 Like, you know, what is that?

10:55 A striking rod?

10:56 Yeah, we did some flint stuff and with like

10:58 the pitch wood from some of the old pine trees,

11:01 you know, you can find that pitch wood.

11:03 And we did some bow and wood drill stuff.

11:06 Not a whole lot of that.

11:07 That[ __][ __] is hard.

11:09 That's hard.

11:11 So hard.

11:10 it in the Boy Scouts, and it took like hours to start a fire.

11:14 Yeah.

11:15 It You have to[ __] keep sawing.

11:18 And if you're doing it with your hand, you're going to blow your hands up.

11:20 Yeah.

11:20 Yeah, you got to get your bow.

11:22 Get your technique down, you know.

11:23 You got to practice it.

11:24 stick on the top and the the stick that goes all the way to the base thing,

11:28 and you cut a little hole in the base thing,

11:31 so that it like all the little embers can fall into your kindling

11:34 and you got to saw the[ __] out of that[ __]

11:36 imagine trying to do that, you know, in the snow or when it's wet,

11:40 you know, it's like, man, this this stuff's just Very, very unlikely.

11:44 You know what's really good for kindling?

11:46 Fritos.

11:48 Really?

11:48 The oil that's in it?

11:50 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:51 It's kind of shocking.

11:52 Yeah.

11:52 We were in Alaska and it was raining all

11:54 the time and there was one day where it stopped.

11:56 I was with uh my friend Steve Rinella took me up there with

11:58 Okay, yeah.

11:59 my friend Brian Callen

12:01 Mhm.

12:01 Brian Callen, all these guys.

12:02 So, we went up there and when we got one day,

12:06 like a 10-hour stretch where it was not raining.

12:09 We like, we got to start a[ __] fire cuz it was it was raining

12:12 every day for like 5 days in a row and we couldn't find any deer.

12:16 It was a nightmare.

12:17 It was tough hunting.

12:19 Yeah.

12:19 So, we this one day and we were trying to figure

12:22 out things to light on fire cuz everything's soaking wet.

12:25 And so, we got some pieces of wood from like

12:28 underneath the bottom of trees and[ __] and dead trees

12:32 that were covered by other things that were kind

12:34 of sort of a little bit dry and we used Fritos.

12:37 And Fritos, when you light them, man,

12:40 it's crazy how much oil is in those things.

12:42 Yeah.

12:43 They just and they stay lit for a long time, like a candle.

12:47 And so, we started like piling little thing and we we got that fire,

12:50 I was like the happiest I've ever been in my life.

12:52 Oh, I bet.

12:53 And you're back and stuck.

12:54 Just cannot get Once you get that kind of cold, too,

12:56 it's just like there's almost, you know, You're cold and you're wet.

13:00 wasn't that bad cold-wise.

13:01 It was like in the 50s or 60s.

13:04 Yeah, it was just the wetness.

13:05 The wetness was impossible to get away from.

13:08 I thought once you get in your tent, you'd be dry.

13:10 You get in your sleeping bag, you'd be dry,

13:12 but I had to take a piss in the middle of the night.

13:14 I had to turn on my headlamp in the tent and when I did, it was all just mist

13:19 Yeah.

13:19 everywhere.

13:20 It was moisture and I was like, oh my god, I'm never going to be dry.

13:23 I had to just accept like there's no drying here.

13:26 How long were guys back in there?

13:28 About 6 days.

13:29 We had to We had to leave We were supposed to be there for 7,

13:32 but we had to leave on the 6th day because a storm was coming in.

13:34 I was like, I could get stuck.

13:35 Cuz you can get stuck up there.

13:37 We were on I guess Prince Edward's, is that what the island is?

13:41 Yeah, um you get stuck up there.

13:43 And I was like, I got to get back home.

13:44 I got to work.

13:45 get fly in like on a On a puddle jumper.

13:48 plane.

13:48 Yeah, we landed in the pond.

13:49 So they had certain windows to get you in and out of there, huh?

13:52 Yeah, exactly.

13:53 And you could drink right out of the pond.

13:55 Like the pond was all rainwater and there was no It was too high for beavers.

13:58 So you didn't have to worry about giardia or anything in the water.

14:01 You could just drink right out of the pond.

14:02 I'm like, this is crazy.

14:04 Yeah, that's the best.

14:04 I've never been I've been to Alaska only like

14:07 in in the winter on a like skiing thing, but I've always wanted to go up there

14:10 to hunt and fish and The people are extraordinary.

14:13 Those are rugged people.

14:15 Like when I did a a gig with my friend Ari in Anchorage.

14:19 And one of the things And it was weird because you get there it's 11:00 p.m.

14:22 it's bright out.

14:22 Like this is weird.

14:24 One of the things that we talked about after was like,

14:25 those people were[ __] cool.

14:27 Like there's there's something about living up there like where you could

14:32 die going outside like a good 6 months out of the year.

14:36 There's[ __] bears everywhere.

14:39 If you look sideways at a moose,

14:41 it'll stomp you to death in the[ __] Walmart parking lot.

14:44 Like it's it's There's bald eagles everywhere.

14:50 The The salmon are as big as your thigh.

14:53 I mean the people there are they work together.

14:57 The There's like they're very friendly, but they're very rugged,

15:01 but they're also like they realize they need each other.

15:04 Like there's a sense of like community and coolness.

15:08 Yeah.

15:08 You need each other.

15:09 If you your[ __] car breaks down the side of the road, you could die.

15:13 Like someone's not going to let you die.

15:14 They're going to pull over.

15:15 In California, they're like, someone will get them.

15:18 They just keep driving.

15:19 So you just lose this sense of community.

15:21 Yeah, you're not calling You're You're not That's That's who you're

15:23 calling for help in times of need is your neighbor, right?

15:25 Exactly.

15:26 even if like the bridge washes out,

15:28 it's like here comes your neighbor with the backhoe

15:30 and the tractor and like these do-it-yourselfers, yeah.

15:32 And that makes a cool friendship when your friend

15:36 helps you out or when you help your friend out.

15:38 It's like

15:38 That's what I miss about living in Texas, too, you know,

15:40 it's just like this some of the small things or whatever

15:43 that you like even up at my place in Topanga,

15:47 you know, you want to build some fence or whatever.

15:48 Like I do have I feel lucky I've got a couple

15:51 of really good friends up there neighbors that, you know,

15:53 love to come, you know, work with their hands and or you get their hands

15:56 dirty and we'll build stuff and but like man,

15:59 in Texas, you want to like weld something or you

16:01 need something with a tractor or some heavy equipment thing,

16:04 you know, like you're not getting that done in California.

16:06 You know, it's going to cost you a fortune to, you know,

16:09 get someone with a skid steer up

16:11 to your house to help you move some dirt around,

16:13 you know, but here in Texas, it's like, "Oh, man, just call Frank down the road.

16:16 He's He's got a There's people that have a long tradition of doing stuff,

16:23 you know, it's like It's a real place.

16:26 And I grew up like that, too, you know,

16:27 and um you know, people cutting hay and stuff like that.

16:31 It's just when you're young, like man,

16:32 we would go stack hay for everybody around,

16:36 you know, it's like that was the summer job, you know, it's like let's just go.

16:40 That makes a strong person.

16:42 Yeah.

16:42 People that throw hay around,

16:44 those are strong motherf- like that term like farmer strength, that shit's real.

16:49 Yeah, you better said.

16:49 I was always a little guy, too,

16:50 so I had to use some learn how to use a leverage real quick.

16:53 Yeah, roll those bales up on your knee.

16:55 I think one of the last times I did that, I

16:57 remember is uh I was going to school in Stephenville,

17:00 Texas and had a good friend over in Glen Rose

17:03 and it was the middle of July and and he's

17:05 an older man and asked us to come help him

17:07 stack hay in his barn and it was you know,

17:09 we're stacking it in the barn, you know,

17:11 so it's just like you're inside the barn.

17:12 It's just hot.

17:13 It could have been 110° in there, you know,

17:16 and we're talking hundreds of bales of hay, and it was just all we could do.

17:19 Of course, we're hungover.

17:20 We're sitting, you know, in college.

17:22 You know, we're trying to We're stacking hay, and I was like,

17:24 "I think I think this is my last hay hauling job right now." Yeah,

17:27 those jobs Those are good for letting you

17:29 know that this is not the life you want.

17:31 Yeah.

17:31 Like get a good rugged manual labor job.

17:34 It'll knock some[ __] sense into you.

17:36 That's how I got the guitar, man.

17:37 I I I learned pretty quick that the guitar felt

17:39 a lot better in my hands than that shovel did.

17:43 Yeah, I know that feeling.

17:45 I I spent one summer doing insulation in an attic.

17:48 It was all that fiberglass insulation.

17:50 Yeah.

17:51 I had it in all my skin cuz you're sweating and your eyes.

17:54 Yeah.

17:54 Yeah, you're sweating cuz it's hot and it's the summer,

17:57 so it's getting into your pores, and you're always itchy.

18:00 You feel like it's on you all the time.

18:02 Also, like it's got to be terrible to be breathing that[ __] in.

18:05 Oh, the worst.

18:07 Yeah.

18:07 And I don't even think we were using equipment.

18:09 I don't think we used any safety equipment.

18:12 Heck, no.

18:12 You didn't have a mask on or anything, right?

18:14 believe so.

18:15 I think we just installed it.

18:16 Just unrolled that[ __] and stuffed it into the into the rafters.

18:21 Using paint with lead in it, right?

18:25 And then the Back then, the gasoline had lead, too.

18:28 So, drinking out of the water hose.

18:30 Right.

18:30 Oh, yeah.

18:31 Yeah.

18:32 I think it makes a resilient person to drink out of water hoses.

18:35 Heck, yeah.

18:35 You get tough or die.

18:38 You get extra minerals from the[ __] copper on the faucet.

18:44 Yeah, it's uh those jobs are really important like for a young

18:48 person to figure out what they don't want to do.

18:50 Mhm.

18:50 It teaches you work ethic.

18:52 It teaches you like, "Hey,

18:53 like this is You can get some satisfaction out

18:56 of a hard day's work and a hard week.

18:58 Like you did it.

18:59 You put it in.

19:00 You feel good about yourself.

19:01 You know it was difficult to do,

19:02 but don't do Don't do Don't do Don't Don't keep doing that." Yeah.

19:06 Figure out a way out of this.

19:08 You You You You got to understand it.

19:10 You understand it.

19:11 You You got to feel for it.

19:13 You know what hard labor is, but Yeah.

19:15 don't ruin your life.

19:17 Yeah, I I I feel real grateful.

19:19 My my granddad was always a real hard worker

19:21 and even when I was 12 and 13, you know,

19:24 in the summers or I would spend a lot of time living

19:26 with them and he always had a job lined up for me, you know, it was like,

19:29 "Hey, you're going to go over here and we're going to mow

19:32 so-and-so's lawn this morning or we're going to go over here,

19:34 we're going to send you out to Ken's and you're going

19:37 to build some fence this weekend or and uh always enjoyed it though.

19:41 I enjoyed those guys I was around and um you know,

19:44 I I'd work all day and then we'd sit around and they'd

19:47 drink beer in the afternoon and tell me stories and you know,

19:50 I I and even now like I'm on place, you know,

19:53 it's like I don't want to be building somebody else's fence,

19:55 but I'm glad I know how to build my own,

19:57 you know, or things like that and have those skills.

20:00 I still love working around the house

20:01 and doing little projects and things like that.

20:04 I meet a lot of younger guys and kids that sometimes I I uh I guess

20:09 I have a expectation that they know how to do that kind of stuff, you know?

20:13 Right.

20:13 They want to come over to the house and help

20:15 us on projects and stuff and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, cool.

20:18 We'll just you know, I already dug those holes and set up a string

20:21 line and we'll set these posts." And they're like,

20:23 "Okay." And then after about a half hour I look

20:26 over and they're just kind of looking at the ground.

20:29 I'm like, "What are we doing here?" You know, and they're like,

20:32 "I don't have a clue what you want me to do." You know?

20:34 That's hilarious.

20:35 That's hilarious.

20:38 But uh yeah, it's uh it's it's wild.

20:42 It's it's changed, man.

20:43 Kids ain't out there mowing lawns no more, that's for sure.

20:45 No.

20:46 Well, there's something about that kind of work like

20:48 putting in fences and all the stuff that you

20:52 see the cowboys doing on Yellowstone and then hanging

20:55 out together afterwards that's so like viscerally appealing to people.

21:00 There's something about watching that life like

21:03 it's you would say it's like a simple, difficult life maybe.

21:08 I don't know what it is, but but whatever it is, it's like it's so appealing.

21:12 Mhm.

21:12 Like so many people wanted to be cowboys after they watched your show.

21:15 Mhm.

21:16 I think it's something goes to like you were talking

21:18 about that guy living off the land and stuff like that.

21:20 It's just uh you know, something that's been ingrained in us over

21:25 thousands of years of survival and like

21:28 we have we all have that in us still today and we just unfortunately

21:32 lose in touch with it cuz we're not doing it as much and when

21:35 you get the opportunity to even just go plant a garden or something like that.

21:39 I think that's that's in us, you know,

21:41 and it's it wakes up something within that's

21:44 just been a little bit dormant for a while,

21:46 you know, and I think you're right.

21:48 You know.

21:48 I think that's exactly what it is.

21:50 I think it is like it's in our memory.

21:52 Like the memory of our genes that this is like a pleasing life.

21:56 This is a satisfying life.

21:58 It's like that mama bear energy, you know,

22:00 kids come it's just like all this like Yeah.

22:02 Oh man, you know.

22:03 Yeah.

22:04 Yeah.

22:05 It's it's there, you know,

22:06 and it's just like I I realized that having kids it's just like oh man,

22:11 it wakes something up within you that's always been there,

22:14 you know, and that you were born to have, you know,

22:17 that that survival instinct and all of those things

22:20 and I I still that's what I still love about it.

22:23 Like I even at home being on the road and being in big

22:26 cities all the time and you're

22:27 just surrounded with information and screens, man.

22:30 As soon as I get home or get outside or get into nature,

22:33 it just it wakes that stuff back up in me and it

22:36 I feel like it puts that spark back in my eye, you know.

22:39 Yeah.

22:40 I uh try to stay in tune with that as much as I can.

22:44 Well, it's clearly so appealing to people that don't experience it.

22:47 I mean, the how many people that are

22:48 watching shows like Yellowstone never go into those areas,

22:52 but they watch it and they're like aww.

22:55 Yeah.

22:55 I want to live like that.

22:56 see the like prices of horses it just skyrocketed.

23:00 Buying old ranches for like five grand and now it's

23:03 like 50 50,000 bucks for a for a trail horse, you know, which is cool, you know,

23:08 and I hope people are enjoying

23:10 that and getting something getting something out of it.

23:12 Like you know, I still I mean, you know,

23:14 I'm not running a bunch of cows these days,

23:16 but I keep a few horses around and especially for the kids, you know,

23:19 and whether they want anything to do with them or not,

23:21 like we enjoy so much in the afternoons going up and feeding

23:24 them some carrots or brushing their tails and just being around that energy.

23:27 My my youngest little boy,

23:29 he's just got He's got some kind of mojo with animals, you know,

23:32 and I've got this old mule and her name's

23:35 Honey and she's got these big ears and she's massive,

23:37 you know, and I remember when he was like three or four,

23:40 I'd be looking around for him in the backyard

23:43 and I'd look out in the pasture and he'd be

23:45 out there with that mule and she'd have her head

23:47 down and he's just out there petting her ears,

23:50 you know, and just like his connection with those animals and then you know,

23:55 getting kids up to the house or or from the city

23:58 that aren't around those animals their first time around

24:00 horses or maybe even dogs and stuff like that and you

24:02 can see their they're so anxious and you know,

24:05 not maybe so scared, but they're just nervous, you know,

24:08 it's just big animals and stuff and within like 20 minutes

24:11 of just sitting them on their back or petting them and then

24:13 you see them relax and you see that energy kind of slow

24:17 down and uh I just I I love that, you know,

24:20 I think it's so magical to watch and Yeah,

24:22 that's another relationship that's like primal,

24:24 the relationship between people and horses.

24:26 Mhm.

24:27 They do that with addicts.

24:28 They do equine therapy where they have just have like

24:31 people that are that have like heavy anxiety and depression,

24:34 they have them hang out with horses.

24:36 I know even me, I still do.

24:38 I mean, I I I have get depressed and stuff like

24:41 that every now and then and I love being around them.

24:43 I can walk out to the barn and just being

24:45 around them and laying on their backs and it's just like,

24:48 ah, yeah, all right, here we go.

24:50 Just touching their head makes you feel better.

24:52 Like, hey, how are you, honey?

24:54 What's happening?

24:55 And they look at them and they connect you know, I get eye contact with them.

24:59 I think it's a looking into your soul.

25:01 An ancient thing.

25:02 I mean, they helped us survive.

25:04 Mhm.

25:04 We and you know, and we took care of them.

25:07 It's like this ancient relationship.

25:08 And then when you're around them,

25:11 that connection like immediately rebonds, reestablishes.

25:15 I think it's in our DNA.

25:16 I mean, just think about like how many

25:18 generations of humans had to survive on horseback Mhm.

25:21 before anybody invented anything else.

25:23 It's like if you wanted to travel faster than you could run,

25:26 it had to be a[ __] horse.

25:27 So, that was probably thousands and thousands

25:29 and thousands of years just cooked into our DNA.

25:33 Mhm.

25:33 And when you're around them, it's like, "Oh, my friend.

25:35 This is my friend." It's waking it back up.

25:37 Yeah, it's it's it's there, yeah.

25:39 It's weird that stuff is in you.

25:41 Mhm.

25:42 That nature stuff is in you.

25:43 I mean, that's why we like watching shows like this Clay guy.

25:46 Mhm.

25:46 I love that, too.

25:47 I love that Steve Rinella's show, that MeatEater.

25:50 I like watching that with my kids.

25:51 And aren't you friend Are you friends with Remi Warren?

25:55 Oh, yeah, really good friend.

25:56 up being my neighbor when I was in Montana working on Yellowstone.

25:59 Oh, really?

26:00 Yeah.

26:00 crazy.

26:01 And I you know, what I really liked up there was where they filmed the show.

26:06 You know, it was kind of way out there, southwestern Montana.

26:09 And a lot of folks that were working on the show

26:10 would go back to Missoula or in the cities.

26:12 But I was like, "Man, I want to go get as far away out there as I can." And so,

26:16 I would kind of went down this West Fork area that's on the uh right

26:20 on the edge of the most massive wilderness areas out there that goes into Idaho.

26:25 And uh the road I was on, you know,

26:27 was paved dirt then it dead ended and it turned into a dirt road.

26:30 And then I got this cabin that was just way back up in there.

26:33 There was no Wi-Fi, no nothing, you know.

26:35 And I just um just disappeared out there.

26:39 And um and ended up meeting some folks and Remi

26:42 was just right down the road uh going towards Sula.

26:45 And so, I got the chance to just go over there

26:47 and hang out with him and go stomp around the mountains with him.

26:50 He's such a cool dude.

26:51 It's like Remi's the best.

26:52 Just you know, like you talked about going to Alaska.

26:54 You know, I love going into those places,

26:56 but like you want somebody like that with you when you go.

26:58 For sure.

26:59 Yeah.

27:01 Yeah, he knows how to get around.

27:02 Yeah.

27:02 And he used to have a great show.

27:05 Well, first of all, he had Solo

27:06 Hunter where he'd go and film everything himself,

27:10 which is so much more difficult than just hunting.

27:13 He'd set up the carry tripods with him and[ __]

27:16 and set it up and make sure the the camera's

27:18 on the animal before you would shoot it

27:20 and then film himself film himself moving up to there,

27:23 set up different cameras that could show him executing the shot.

27:26 Like, "God, that's so complicated." And he's a beast, man.

27:29 Just try I was trying to keep up with him,

27:31 you know, just walking around the mountains with that guy.

27:34 I'm like, "Oh, man, wait up.

27:36 I'll be I'm coming." Yeah, they get that mountain cardio.

27:39 Yeah, he's like a mountain goat.

27:41 Well, he you know, he hunts probably 200 plus days a year.

27:45 And on top of that, he does a lot of guiding.

27:47 And when he's doing guiding, he's like always in the mountains, always hiking.

27:50 It's like you you just get conditioned to it.

27:53 Yeah, he's fit.

27:53 I went to Hawaii with him and did an axis hunt over there.

27:57 Coolest things I ever did.

27:59 And I I got this buck and we're loading him up

28:04 in the truck and all that and he was like, "Man,

28:05 I'm going to I'll meet you guys back at camp." You know,

28:08 and it was dark already and like I know, you know,

28:10 during the day we were hunting it was

28:11 just steep mountains up and down and I said,

28:15 "You're going to just going to meet us back?" He's like, "Yeah,

28:16 I'll meet you back." And he just put on his backpack and just took off running.

28:20 And we you know, drove down this mountain road to go back

28:22 and he beat us there by like a half an hour, you know.

28:25 And that was his workout.

28:26 He's like, "Oh, it's part of my workout.

28:28 I'll meet I'll meet you guys back there." I was like,

28:29 "Oh, you're you're an animal." That's funny.

28:32 Axis deer in in Hawaii is very interesting cuz they were given

28:38 um to King Kamehameha in like I don't remember what year it was.

28:43 Find out what year they got introduced there, but they're everywhere now.

28:47 Um I've gone to Lanai a bunch of times That's where we went bow hunting.

28:50 Yeah, it was wild.

28:51 There are thousands of them everywhere and you're trying to sneak

28:54 up on a group of 10 and then you don't even realize

28:56 there's like a hundred right here laying down that you didn't even

29:00 see and then they get up and spook the rest and stampede.

29:02 You know, you've you've been there.

29:04 Uh Okay, it was in the 1800s.

29:06 A gift uh to King Kamehameha from India.

29:12 And uh there's 30,000 of them in Lanai and only 3,000 people.

29:17 Yeah.

29:17 I mean it's crazy.

29:18 It's the only place where you can go hunting

29:20 bow hunting and you stay at the Four Seasons.

29:22 Right.

29:24 I think Remi said he got kicked out of there

29:26 though cuz he he was hunting so much and you know,

29:29 they all that red clay there, you know, on your boots and stuff.

29:32 He said so the whole hotel was just like red

29:34 clay everywhere then the fridge is just full of meat,

29:37 you know, like blood dripping out.

29:39 They kicked him out of there?

29:40 Oh, I don't know if they kicked him out but like he's like, "Well,

29:43 maybe we ought to go find somewhere else to stay,

29:45 you know." Well, just take off your boots before you come inside.

29:47 That's all it is.

29:48 But yeah, it's that weird red clay and and it

29:51 all used to be part of the Dole pineapple plantation.

29:55 So when you're around there,

29:56 one of the things you notice is like there's layers of dirt,

29:59 but then there's like almost looks like plastic bag underneath it.

30:02 Like a like a hefty bag.

30:04 From all the farming.

30:05 Yeah, so I guess they had a layer of like that kind of whatever

30:10 the[ __] a hefty bag is made out of, whatever that plastic is,

30:13 and then the dirt was on top of that somehow.

30:16 And then the pineapples would grow up through it.

30:18 I subs keep moisture and stuff like that in the ground.

30:20 Yeah, I would imagine.

30:21 But it's it's it's disconcerting cuz it doesn't feel like nature.

30:24 It feels weird.

30:25 It's like this is weird there's plastic everywhere in the ground.

30:28 Yeah.

30:29 It's also the mountains and like those old World War

30:31 II turrets and stuff that are up there.

30:33 Did you come across any of that?

30:34 I mean it's just like First of all,

30:36 like hunting axis deer on in Lanai and like you

30:39 get up on the top and you're surrounded by the ocean.

30:41 I mean what a trip, you know?

30:43 It's just seeing that and then coming across all those old relics

30:46 and just all the history there is just something to take in, too.

30:50 And uh we are laughing cuz obviously

30:52 they're trying to like control the population

30:54 of the axis deer there and I think somebody some somebody mentioned like,

30:58 "Man, just get a couple of Bengal tigers out here." Exactly.

31:03 That'll thin out the population.

31:05 It'll thin out the population of people, too, unfortunately.

31:07 Yeah.

31:08 The thing about them is that they did evolve around tigers.

31:10 That's why they're so fast.

31:12 Like they'll jump a string faster than any animal I've ever seen in my life.

31:16 I have a video of me shooting at an axis deer

31:18 at 80 yd and it's uh we have a slow-mo of the arrow.

31:23 So, as the the arrow's coming, it's a perfect shot within 10 yd of him,

31:30 he hears it and whew and he's gone.

31:34 It's the craziest thing.

31:35 Like you you you you look at it, you're like,

31:37 "How the[ __] did he move that fast?" This thing's going at least well,

31:41 from the actual like leaving the bow, it's going 275 ft per second.

31:47 Yeah.

31:47 And he can get out of there within 10 yd.

31:50 Within 10 yd, he's hearing it coming and he's like, "See ya." Yeah.

31:54 And nowhere near him.

31:55 Like it he was a foot in front of It

31:57 was a the arrow landed a foot behind his ass.

32:00 Jeez.

32:01 That's how fast they move.

32:02 Yeah.

32:02 It's crazy.

32:03 How long did you go over there for a while

32:05 or just kind of like a few times trip, yeah?

32:07 Um we found that the best time to hunt is

32:09 actually in the afternoon because in the afternoon it's really windy.

32:14 And when it's really windy, it covers your sound a little bit.

32:16 Okay.

32:17 The morning's rough.

32:18 Yeah.

32:18 The morning's rough.

32:19 Like the morning I I got a couple of them

32:22 in the morning couple of times morning hunting I got a deer,

32:25 but it's a lot of blown stocks.

32:28 You got to walk super slow.

32:30 You got to be real cautious.

32:32 And again, there's a lot of high brush

32:33 and you don't know where the[ __] they're hiding.

32:35 Yeah.

32:36 You got to kind of find a pinch point and

32:38 Yeah, you jump one and then the rest of them sound off.

32:41 The way they're barking and all of that is pretty crazy, too.

32:43 It's weird noise.

32:44 What you got to kind of do is like find where they're going to be and just wait.

32:49 Cuz they travel so much, they do so much moving.

32:51 You think I'm just going to go, you know,

32:53 still hunt and spot and stalk and I'll I'll find

32:56 one and I'll You're almost better off just staying put.

32:59 Yeah.

33:00 Just staying put and wait for them to cuz they're moving all over the place.

33:02 There's so[ __] many of them.

33:04 It's crazy.

33:05 Yeah.

33:05 But it's amazing how unsuccessful people are bow hunting them.

33:10 Mhm.

33:10 Rifle, it's a done deal.

33:13 It's If you want meat, and it's the best meat in the world.

33:16 It's so del- It's For the people that live there, it's incredible.

33:19 I mean, they have access to the best meat in the world.

33:22 100% they're going to get a deer.

33:24 And so, if you have a But if you have a bow, we went there and then So,

33:29 I went with Remi, I went with John Dudley, Cam Hanes, and Adam Greentree.

33:35 They're like all seasoned bow hunters.

33:36 Everybody Everybody got a deer and we made a podcast about it.

33:41 We had a good old time.

33:42 They had 150 people go over the next year and one was successful with a bow.

33:49 They didn't take any chances, yeah.

33:51 That's how hard it is.

33:52 Because it's like these[ __] are they're dialed in, man.

33:57 Mhm.

33:57 And they move of people chasing them, too.

33:58 They they know the game, right?

34:00 365 days a year they get hunted.

34:02 There's no season.

34:03 And then they have snipers that are after them at night because, you know,

34:06 they use it for meat for the restaurants and meat

34:09 for people and so And they just have to control the population.

34:12 There's so many of them and no predators.

34:14 Yeah, and still can't thin them out, right?

34:16 it's crazy.

34:18 I think they got a good head start.

34:19 They eradicated them from the Big Island.

34:21 Oh, did they?

34:22 I didn't know that.

34:22 Okay.

34:22 Yeah.

34:23 Somebody tried to reintroduce them or introduce, I should say,

34:25 to the Big Island and they're like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

34:28 We know where this is going.

34:29 You're going to He's going to destroy

34:31 people's crops and destroy people's gardens.

34:34 over.

34:35 And they already have plenty of wild pigs on the Big Island,

34:37 so they just they whacked them all, unfortunately.

34:40 It's kind of like the pigs here in Texas, right?

34:42 Didn't they go wild?

34:44 I don't know, you know, growing up here when I was younger,

34:45 I never remember them being like how they are now.

34:48 They don't stop.

34:50 They have three or four litters a year,

34:52 and each litter has I think they can have as many as six piglets.

34:56 It's crazy.

34:57 They just and they can get pregnant 6 months old.

35:00 At 6 months old, they can get pregnant,

35:02 they're ready to rock, and they're just spitting out pigs.

35:05 And just tearing tearing[ __] up.

35:07 Yeah.

35:08 I we have a lease out here for hunting land,

35:10 me and some of my friends, and the amount of pigs is disturbing.

35:15 It's like you hear them everywhere.

35:18 You hear them in the bushes.

35:19 They're all over the[ __] place.

35:20 It's like most of Texas probably that's not like city has wild pigs in it.

35:30 Taking over, man.

35:31 And this all came over on boats.

35:33 Yeah.

35:33 That's how it all got here.

35:36 Yeah.

35:36 It's important, man.

35:37 Yeah, guys from Europe, they brought boats, and and in the boats,

35:41 some of them brought pigs, and then they let them loose.

35:43 It's crazy, man.

35:46 Tearing stuff up.

35:47 Yeah, I don't ever remember them being as bad

35:49 as they were like in the last 15 years or so.

35:51 It's actually bad in California, too.

35:53 And California has them from William Randolph Hearst.

35:56 Didn't they take Didn't they like eradicate

35:58 them off the Channel Islands out there?

36:00 All that stuff.

36:02 They I think the islands,

36:03 and they had mule deer on some of the islands out there, too, right?

36:07 Yeah, I think so.

36:08 which island had mule deer.

36:10 But apparently, they had a like a like

36:13 you could go hunt on one of these islands.

36:16 Yeah, I think you I think you might still

36:17 be able to like on Catalina or a couple,

36:19 but maybe Do they really allow that?

36:22 They did cuz I know my my buddy Matt would he

36:25 did it like maybe the last year or the year before,

36:28 but I think they're trying to put a stop to it and and kind of stop it.

36:32 Those Channel Islands are pretty interesting.

36:33 I remember first moving out there,

36:35 even just going out there 15 years ago and um seeing the islands out there,

36:40 you know, and I'd ask people all around.

36:42 I was like, "Man, what's the deal with these islands out

36:44 there?" And half the people that I would talk to be like,

36:46 "What are you talking about?

36:47 Islands?" Islands.

36:48 And I'm like, "That island right out there." They're like,

36:51 "Oh, I thought that was Long Beach, you know." Really?

36:55 I was like, "Have you looked at a map,

36:56 you know?" I love maps, so I just started,

36:59 you know, doing some research and figuring

37:01 out all about it and they're really cool.

37:04 And over the years I've met some really cool guys who go out there

37:07 a lot and spearfish and just to go out there to them and besides Catalina,

37:11 like Santa Cruz and San Miguel and you know,

37:13 they're all like nature preserves and protected.

37:16 So, it's like going back in time when you get

37:18 out there and uh uh I love it out there.

37:21 It's such a such a cool spot.

37:23 Did they try to Are they trying to eradicate deer from Catalina?

37:27 I think I read something about that.

37:30 See if that's true.

37:32 I think they're trying to remove the deer because they

37:34 said the deer were non-native to the island, which Yeah.

37:37 Yeah, I think that's what they did with the with the hogs and I don't know.

37:41 There's like a a specific island fox out there.

37:44 Yeah, here it is.

37:45 As of early 2026, California officials

37:48 have approved a controversial plan to fully

37:50 eradicate the non-native mule deer population

37:53 on Santa Catalina Island to restore the ecosystem.

37:56 Around 2,000 deer introduced in the 1930s for hunting

38:01 will be removed by ground-based hunters to protect native biodiversity.

38:07 Come on.

38:09 That sounds crazy.

38:10 How about just let people hunt them?

38:12 What's wrong with you?

38:13 Um so, the issue is Catalina Island

38:16 Conservancy considers the mule deer an invasive species

38:20 that disrupts the ecosystem as they consume native

38:23 plants and seedlings while spreading fire-prone invasive grasses.

38:29 Really?

38:32 I have I just always worry about conservancies

38:36 and their their judgments on things like that because

38:39 there's a lot of They want to eradicate all

38:41 the pigs from Texas or the from California rather.

38:45 They think of the of them as non-native and they want them out too,

38:48 but you're not going to.

38:50 They want to eradicate the There's like

38:53 elk in California that are Yellowstone elk

38:55 that were brought there in like the 1950s

38:58 that they they want to eradicate them too.

39:01 the tule elk?

39:01 No, they're actually they're actually Rocky Mountain elk.

39:04 Oh, okay.

39:05 Yeah, but they're they're a larger breed

39:08 of Rocky Mountain elk that they call yellow Apparently

39:11 Like in the Sierras or down in on along the coast and stuff?

39:14 Tehachapi up in that area in those mountains.

39:18 Um big[ __] elk like 400-in elk.

39:22 Like a couple of those elk out there that are in the front,

39:24 that's what they're from.

39:25 that's what they're Those are massive.

39:28 Yeah, it's from Tejon Ranch.

39:29 Okay.

39:30 Yeah, and Oh, yeah, it's like going up over the Grapevine.

39:32 Exactly.

39:33 That's where you got those?

39:34 Uh-huh.

39:35 Wow, I had no idea that they were that big out there.

39:38 It's all It's the biggest private ranch in California.

39:41 It's like 270,000 acres.

39:43 I've heard of the ranch,

39:44 but I I didn't know that they had elk like that up there.

39:46 Yeah, one of the rare places.

39:48 Gorgeous[ __] place.

39:50 But uh they also go out It's kind of funny,

39:52 they go up to um there's a golfing community at higher up

39:57 in Tehachapi and um the elk just hang out on the golf course.

40:01 Just chilling it up.

40:03 giant elk like 400-in elk just chilling,

40:06 hanging out together on the golf course and dudes are playing golf.

40:10 That's wild.

40:11 While they're lying down next to them like 20 yards away.

40:13 It's crazy.

40:14 I seen I I saw some one time I was driving up the coast.

40:17 I think I was going up to San Francisco

40:19 to play a gig and maybe they're the tuley elk.

40:22 I'm not sure what they were,

40:23 but it was along the coast there and I looked over in a field and there

40:26 was like 30 head of them just laying down and I was there and I'm like,

40:29 "Oh man, I didn't even know there were elk down here."

40:32 It's just I love seeing wildlife that in unexpected places, you know.

40:37 Yeah.

40:38 They recently just found a wolf around Los Angeles.

40:42 Oh, really?

40:42 Yeah.

40:43 See See if you can find the story about

40:45 that wolf that they just discovered in Los Angeles.

40:48 There's a mama mama bear black bear

40:50 with three cubs now running around in Topanga.

40:53 Oh, yeah.

40:54 Yeah.

40:54 There's a lot of those.

40:55 of lions running around.

40:57 Um there's a lot of a lot of bears.

41:00 I I've seen them in Pasadena and people's pools.

41:02 Mhm.

41:03 I knew that there's a bunch out in Pasadena and like Glendale.

41:06 detected in Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century.

41:11 Crazy.

41:14 Isn't that nuts?

41:15 Yeah.

41:16 Those guys can[ __] travel.

41:19 I had a lady on who was a wolf

41:20 biologist and she was talking about like the you know,

41:24 they'd collar some of these wolves and they would track them.

41:26 They'd go 500 miles.

41:28 Yeah.

41:29 Like it's kind of insane.

41:31 I didn't know that.

41:32 That's That's incredible.

41:33 Well, that's how they learned about them.

41:34 It's really the only way to tell is to like

41:36 put a collar on them and track them by GPS.

41:39 Mhm.

41:39 And you know, they mean they're extraordinary animals like Where

41:44 were they Where were they originating from in in Montana,

41:47 Wyoming and how where were they going the ones that they were tracking?

41:50 I think the ones that they were tracking were the part

41:52 of the group that was brought in, you know, in the 1990s,

41:56 you know, so there was that pack and the subsequent

41:59 packs that came after that that were all the reintroduced wolves.

42:02 And so they would, you know, dart and collar some of them and when

42:06 they would do that they'd just track their motion.

42:08 They're like, "Jesus, these[ __] are covering some ground,

42:11 huh?" They're covering some ground.

42:13 They're covering some ground.

42:14 And it's interesting, too,

42:16 that they actually make mountain lions kill more deer.

42:20 They're competing with them.

42:21 Yeah, because uh the mountain lions kill a deer,

42:24 and then the wolves will steal it.

42:26 Oh, okay.

42:26 come up on the mountain lion and they'll surround him,

42:28 and the mountain lion will go, "Fuck this.

42:30 I'm out of here." And he'll just go kill another deer.

42:32 So, he doesn't even get a chance to eat

42:34 his deer cuz the wolves keep stealing his deer.

42:36 tracking the lions, probably just following them around, huh?

42:38 They're smart, man.

42:39 Dirty work, yeah.

42:40 They do.

42:41 They let them do the dirty work, and then they steal their food.

42:43 Work smarter, not harder, huh?

42:44 So, it's What does it say?

42:46 The wolf that they found?

42:47 Yeah, that's from when February when they first spotted it.

42:50 Mhm.

42:50 So, the wolf was born in 2023, Plumas County's Where's Plumas County?

42:55 It's traveled more than 370 mi.

42:57 Wow.

42:59 Including crossing State Route 59 near Tehachapi.

43:02 There you go.

43:03 Uh they had one up in Tehachapi, too, that uh a buddy of mine It was actually

43:07 closer to um uh the city that's down there.

43:12 What's that[ __] city?

43:13 Bakersfield?

43:14 Bakersfield.

43:15 Exactly.

43:16 Wildlife officials now estimate at least 60 wolves live in the state.

43:22 Wow.

43:21 One crossed over in 2011.

43:23 Wow.

43:25 From California, from Oregon.

43:27 So, uh so, they find them in the Tehachapi Mountains.

43:30 Interesting.

43:32 Biologist told newspa- Oh, oh,

43:34 that Biologist told newspapers that she could encounter

43:36 a mate in the nearby region such as Tehachapi Mountains,

43:39 potentially forming a new pack or continue to roam.

43:41 What was that picture you just had of the elk?

43:43 Yeah, that's that golf course.

43:44 Look at that.

43:46 Uh

43:47 Giant[ __] elk chilling on the golf course, clashing

43:51 Yeah, look how beautiful that is.

43:53 God, so pretty out there.

43:54 Massive elk Oak Tree Country Club.

43:57 Perfect sanctuary for them, right?

43:59 Oh, yeah, man.

44:00 And it's just It adds to the coolness of playing golf.

44:04 I mean, you're playing golf around giant, beautiful animals.

44:07 those greenskeepers love them though.

44:09 Right.

44:11 They probably[ __] up all kinds of things out there.

44:14 Yeah.

44:15 It's the wolf thing is interesting because they they just brought

44:18 them back to Aspen and they did a really stupid thing.

44:21 They they brought them into an area where it

44:24 has a lot of livestock and they brought them

44:26 in from a place in Oregon where these wolves

44:30 had all been captured because they were killing agriculture.

44:33 Yeah.

44:34 So, what did they do?

44:35 They captured them and they dropped them off

44:37 in Colorado where they started killing cows again.

44:41 park.

44:41 They're just doing Well, it's on people's my friend's ranch.

44:44 One of them they dropped three wolves off on my friend's ranch.

44:47 That's tough, man.

44:48 I got even with the bears and stuff, you know,

44:50 you get some problem bears or whatever and then they go

44:52 and drop them out where farmers and ranchers are living, you know.

44:55 And so, I said, "Man, how's how's that going to work?" You know.

44:57 Well, it's the people in charge of these things that making these decisions.

45:01 They don't understand what they're doing.

45:03 They're monkeying around with wildlife, nature,

45:06 biology and you you don't know what you're doing.

45:08 Yeah.

45:09 You don't you have no idea.

45:10 Also, like how how the[ __] you in good conscience take a wolf

45:14 that's used to killing cows and put him around other people's cows?

45:18 Yeah, it's already it's already programmed and then the dinner bells ringing.

45:21 exactly how to do it.

45:22 It knows it's easy.

45:23 They're all fenced in.

45:25 They they taste delicious.

45:27 Why would it stop?

45:28 Or why would it Yeah, why would it go chase chase the tougher prey, right?

45:32 So, now these poor ranchers have to have people monitoring their cows 24/7.

45:38 They have to have cowboys up all night that are

45:40 wandering around and on horseback and just looking for wolves.

45:45 I mean, it's a disaster.

45:46 They've killed dozens of cows.

45:48 And these are folks that, you know, have been like we surviving on this land

45:52 for generations and and dealing with that and you know,

45:57 have have a history with managing that stuff, you know,

45:59 and probably be the folks I'd want to ask.

46:02 Yeah.

46:02 That's how to handle it, you know.

46:03 Well, they would certainly tell you don't let the wolves in and if you do,

46:07 kill them, you know, but now it's gotten to the point where I

46:11 think they're going to have to do something about them.

46:13 Will they put a Will they put a hunting hunting limit on them, you think?

46:17 Honestly, that would probably do something,

46:21 but really what you should do is hire someone

46:24 to recapture them and don't drop them off there.

46:27 Don't drop them off in[ __] Aspen, you idiot.

46:30 Cuz they're going to eat people's poodles, too.

46:32 Okay, they don't give a[ __] Well, if they run out of cows,

46:35 if somehow or another the ranchers scare them away

46:37 from the cows and they make it into the town of Aspen,

46:40 you don't think they're going to eat your golden retriever?

46:42 They're going to eat all kinds of dogs.

46:43 They eat dogs in Alaska all the time.

46:45 Yeah.

46:47 Yeah, you hear with all of those like the lions and stuff, man.

46:50 They're coming after your kids.

46:51 Yeah.

46:52 Yeah, there's been a stuff at Malibu Creek Park, you know,

46:54 I've heard a couple of incidents there, you know, hits.

46:57 Like, man, they're they're going to go eat something.

47:00 Especially when they're old.

47:01 Yeah.

47:02 When they get old.

47:03 Mhm.

47:03 You know, when they can't catch a deer anymore

47:06 and they're hungry and they haven't eaten in a few

47:08 days and they see a kid hanging around

47:10 a little too close to the outside of the woods.

47:13 I got a big one that comes right by my house.

47:14 I got a little game trail cameras set up

47:16 and I got a little fountain right in the front.

47:18 It doesn't come around when I'm there cuz we got the dogs, you know, a lot,

47:21 but whenever I'm out of town for weeks at a time,

47:24 I'll come back and that sucker's just laying on my front porch.

47:27 Just massive and then the the other day a friend of mine

47:31 was taking the trash out and that's like it was like around lunchtime

47:35 and it jumped over the fence into the driveway and had a dead

47:37 rabbit in it dead rabbit in its mouth just looking at her, you know,

47:41 and she's like Holy[ __] They're there, you know,

47:44 so every time I'm even walking around by myself or with the dogs,

47:47 you're just like, man,

47:47 this sucker could just be in a tree looking at me right now.

47:50 Yeah, you're just living with monsters.

47:53 Yeah.

47:53 Woo.

47:54 They're there.

47:56 California spent more than a hundred million dollars trying

47:59 to make a bridge over I forget which freeway it is.

48:04 I think it's the 101.

48:05 Is it the 101?

48:06 I think you're right.

48:08 So they spent over a hundred million dollars and it's still not done.

48:11 Oh my gosh.

48:12 For a bridge a bridge for the mountain lions.

48:15 Like you[ __] dorks.

48:19 It's like this idea of like it's going to be

48:21 a bridge but it's going to have dirt and grass

48:23 on it so it'll encourage them to walk across so

48:25 they don't have to go over the highway and die.

48:28 Is it nicer than the roads we're driving on?

48:30 Yeah.

48:31 Well, a hundred and ten million dollars is crazy and it's still not even done.

48:36 Like it is like it's it's so crazy.

48:40 So that's what it Early 2026 they think it'll up to Ventura, right?

48:44 Yeah.

48:45 Yeah.

48:46 So they want to have this this big dirt mound

48:49 and this bridge so the animals can get across the highway.

48:53 But it's just like it's so goofy.

48:56 And they never want people to do anything about the population

48:59 of mountain lions regardless of how out of control they are.

49:01 They don't do anything about it.

49:03 They have to hire people the state has to hire people

49:05 to go and get the bad mountain lions the ones that are problems.

49:08 Yeah.

49:09 And when they capture them one of the things

49:10 they find out is they're they actually kill them, right?

49:13 So one of the things they find out

49:14 when they examine their diet it's like 50% pets.

49:18 Yeah.

49:19 50% dogs and cats.

49:21 That's what your mountain lions are eating.

49:22 That's crazy.

49:23 Yeah.

49:25 And they spend money like a lot of money going

49:28 after these mountain lions and instead they could make money

49:32 by letting people hunt these mountain lions and giving them

49:35 tags and control the numbers in that place to home ranch.

49:40 One of my buddies works there and they have a a trail camera set up

49:43 on a pond and they found 16 different cats that were drinking out of that pond.

49:49 Oh my gosh.

49:50 That's insane.

49:52 I was like when I first started going out there, too,

49:54 the coyotes, you know, and even around like in Hollywood and stuff,

49:58 you know, like, man, I swear I just saw a coyote running

50:00 down the street with a pair of sunglasses on.

50:02 And a gold chain.

50:05 Eating better than any of us.

50:07 When I went there in '94, that was the first time I ever saw a coyote.

50:10 I couldn't believe it.

50:11 I was staying at the You know,

50:13 they have those furnished apartments, the Oakwood furnished apartments.

50:16 Oh, no, not really.

50:18 like for people that are like don't have a house

50:20 yet and you got to move to California quick.

50:22 They have this place called Oakwoods.

50:24 And you go there, it's already got a couch,

50:26 it's already got a TV, it's already got a bed.

50:27 You're like, okay.

50:28 Like an Airbnb type of thing.

50:29 like you can just move in.

50:31 And I was driving up to the entrance to the place

50:35 and I see these little dogs on the street.

50:38 I was like, what the[ __] going on?

50:39 These do- That ain't no dog.

50:43 I was like, oh my god, they're coyotes.

50:46 Like, this is weird.

50:48 And so this is like '94.

50:50 I had never seen a[ __] coyote.

50:51 I didn't even heard of a coyote being out just wandering on the street.

50:55 I just couldn't believe it, that they just wander around on the concrete.

50:59 I mean, it's they're they're everywhere.

51:01 I feel like I've seen more there than anywhere.

51:03 You see them more in town than you do anywhere else.

51:05 Yeah.

51:06 Yeah, they Well, they have large populations of them in downtown.

51:10 Where they know where they den up.

51:11 They den up in certain warehouse buildings.

51:13 Okay.

51:14 Yeah.

51:14 Like abandoned buildings and under bridges and freeways and stuff.

51:18 Yeah.

51:18 They like they live there.

51:20 They probably keep the rats down.

51:21 Nature will take back over one day, won't it?

51:23 Exactly.

51:24 Yeah.

51:24 Yeah.

51:25 I think they probably keep the rat population in check, though.

51:28 Yeah.

51:29 If you think about it.

51:30 Yeah.

51:30 They keep a lot of other things in check, too.

51:32 Right.

51:33 Cats.

51:35 Well, there's a terrible video from Woodland Hills

51:37 a few years back where a guy was unloading

51:41 his car and his toddler was out there in in the grass like right next to him.

51:46 And the coyote grabbed his toddler and he to run away with his kid.

51:49 Yeah, I saw that, man.

51:50 I, you know, I'm always watching around for stuff

51:53 and with my arcados or just people around the neighborhood and stuff.

51:57 You got to remind you remind yourself, you know,

51:59 they're they're there and they're not scared of you,

52:01 you know, they're not they're not afraid.

52:02 I I remember the one of the first times uh I went up to Ojai,

52:06 just north of uh LA there, you know,

52:08 I just wanted to go up there and go hike around and check out the area and uh

52:12 there was uh an archery shop up there and I

52:16 this old guy kind of looked like Charlie Daniels,

52:17 just big overalls, big old beard, you know,

52:19 and I walked in there and just to check

52:22 out the shop and also just ask him about,

52:24 you know, some areas to go stomp around and and I had a uh

52:28 a Australian shepherd dog at the time and uh just ask him where I,

52:33 you know, good places to go stomp around and he said, "Yeah, you know,

52:35 you can go up there." He goes,

52:36 "But I wouldn't take your dog with you." I was like,

52:38 "Really, why?" He's like, "Man, those lions are real deal up here,

52:42 you know." He's like, "You He goes, "You won't see them,

52:45 you know, until they're all on you, you know." And I just you know,

52:48 I knew there were lions and stuff like that, but hearing it from from that guy,

52:52 you know, maybe he's tried to scare me a little bit,

52:54 but, you know, there's I it's uh it's it's real deal.

52:58 It's real.

52:59 It's real and they try to downplay it and cuz the all the wildlife lovers,

53:05 all the greenies, they don't want you like sounding the alarm and killing them.

53:10 But their goal is to have zero hunting.

53:13 Their goal is to have all the animals just balance each other out.

53:17 It ain't going to happen.

53:18 You can't.

53:19 It's not Not with humans in the mix, yeah.

53:21 No, the humans have interrupted that whole idea, right?

53:24 So if you've got a city and then you've got wild giant predators,

53:28 like 170-lb cats that are killing dogs and they're like,

53:33 "You got to control them." Can't manage one without managing the other, right?

53:37 And so the first way the first thing they did

53:40 to stop people from doing it is they banned hunting with dogs.

53:44 So, if you ban hunting with dogs, guess what?

53:46 You basically you're killing most of the hunting cuz

53:48 the reality of mountain lions is you can't find them.

53:50 They're really hard to find.

53:52 Really hard to catch, really hard to find,

53:54 and the best way to control their population is to tree them.

53:58 And you get dogs to tree cuz that way you

54:00 know if it's a tom or if it's a female.

54:03 You know if it's mature, you know what size it is.

54:05 You have a really accurate estimation.

54:08 You can look up at it, oh that's a mature tom.

54:10 That's what we're looking to kill.

54:12 And then you can control their population.

54:14 That's the only same with bears.

54:15 It's a great way to control the population.

54:17 and decide if it needs to go or if it if if it needs to stay, right?

54:21 Yeah.

54:22 But they do little things to stop the effective hunting first.

54:26 So, California you can still hunt for black bears,

54:29 but you can't use dogs anymore.

54:31 And so, as soon as they stopped the use of dogs,

54:33 the amount of black bears they harvested went way down.

54:36 So, the amount of bears in the population went way up.

54:39 Yeah, I don't think they I mean I I know they've been around in Pasadena a lot,

54:43 but I don't think there's been one in Topanga for a while.

54:45 I mean I've been up there shoot almost 15 years and hadn't heard of one.

54:49 This is the first time I one's kind of made it

54:51 over in in the that area that I know of anyway.

54:54 Maybe up, you know, around the uh Malibu Creek and those state parks,

54:59 but uh In Topanga there's probably people feeding them.

55:01 Oh, 100%.

55:03 Yeah.

55:03 berries for you, my friend.

55:05 Come.

55:06 them weed.

55:10 Some berries.

55:13 Topanga is great, but it's always sketches me out if a fire catches.

55:17 Oh man, I we we got hit hard last year as you know,

55:20 the Palisades stuff and man, I didn't that was kind of it for me, too.

55:25 I was like, I'm out, you know.

55:27 It's terrifying.

55:27 Yeah, I've been evacuated out of there several times over the years,

55:30 but um I've got horses up there now and stuff

55:33 like that and luckily I had like a uh I always

55:37 keep a big truck and a trailer just in case

55:39 and I've got some friends down in Burbank that have some stables,

55:42 you know, that I have like as a backup

55:43 plan and but this was just a different deal.

55:46 I as a crow flies, I could see the smoke from the Palisades,

55:50 you know, it's like a mile away, you know,

55:52 and we were actually working in in our arena

55:54 there and smoke came up and I was like,

55:57 "Shoot, let's just go." Every time I see the smoke, like I don't wait.

56:00 I'm just like, "We'll be the first ones out and you know,

56:02 beat the beat the mad rush of everybody that's

56:04 going to decide to try to stay and loaded up

56:07 the the trailer and the truck and the camper

56:10 and the dogs and all that stuff and I was like,

56:12 "Let's go." And my wife and I went down to Burbank and I remember

56:16 we were driving through the night and the wind was just howling like I've

56:21 never seen before and power lines are snapping and it's just like trees are

56:26 coming down and it just felt like the end of the world, you know?

56:29 And we get to Burbank and we pull back

56:32 in these stables and there's a kind of a big

56:34 cinder block wall and I just got as close

56:37 to that as I could cuz it was blocking the wind,

56:39 you know, from hitting us and the next morning I

56:43 woke up and I just my throat was sore and hurting.

56:45 I could hardly breathe and I opened the camper door

56:48 and the Altadena fire had started and it was right there

56:51 and so it was just a mountain of black smoke coming

56:54 over the top of us there and uh so I let's go.

56:57 Let's get out here.

56:58 Let's like head north and I had some friends in Moorpark,

57:01 you know, up in that area going towards Ventura that had horses.

57:05 Trying to find some place to to go with some horses and they're like,

57:08 "Yeah, come on up here." So we went up there,

57:10 stayed there a night and then they cut all the power off up in that area

57:13 cuz the winds were snapping power lines and they

57:15 were worried about fires and and you know,

57:18 after doing that a few nights and I was like,

57:20 "Let's just head east and go to Texas,

57:22 you know?" So we just There's only so so many friends you

57:27 can like show up with five horses and a bunch of dogs,

57:29 you know, like, "Hey, we're going to stay for while,

57:31 you know." Especially in California.

57:34 Yeah, we're like, let's just get out of here and headed back

57:37 and you didn't know when we were going to make it back and they,

57:39 you know, closed indefinitely or whatever.

57:42 I was just like, man, I'm I'm over it.

57:44 I got evacuated a bunch of times when I lived there,

57:46 but the last one was 2018 and when the last one we got out early.

57:52 I came home from the comedy store and we

57:54 saw fire coming over the top of this hill

57:57 and it was probably like 1:00 in the morning

57:59 and me and my wife were sitting there and I go,

58:01 "What do you think?" She's like, "Let's get the[ __] out of here." I'm like,

58:04 "Let's get the[ __] out of here.

58:05 Let's just grab some[ __] and maybe it'll come this way,

58:08 maybe it won't." So, it didn't burn the house down,

58:11 but my neighbors, the front front three neighbors

58:14 all lost their house and my next door neighbor,

58:16 his his roof caught on fire, but my friend who refused to to leave,

58:21 he stayed in the neighborhood and protected his house and guided firefighters.

58:25 He brought the firefighters to that house and showed them that it

58:28 just started on this guy's roof and they hosed it down,

58:31 they stopped it in its tracks, but it was pretty[ __] bad.

58:34 But It's wild cuz you know it's going to burn.

58:36 I mean, it's not a matter of you know, if, it's just when and I mean,

58:40 that's that's canyons have been burning like

58:42 that for thousands of years and and even

58:44 the Chumash were setting them on fire on purpose to get ahead of it, right?

58:47 And control and all of that stuff and now there's just so many houses

58:51 and communities back up in there it's so it's just a it's a tough thing,

58:55 but when they when they hit, man,

58:56 they're it's they just they're rolling through.

58:59 How fast they come through.

59:00 Those Santa Ana winds are blowing like

59:02 that and It's just very surreal in person.

59:06 You can watch it on the news and you kind of get a feeling of it,

59:08 but when you're there and you're driving down the 101 and you look at the side

59:12 of the highway and you see like these hills

59:14 in the distance that are just covered in fire.

59:16 Mhm.

59:17 Hundreds of yards of fields of fire just making

59:21 their way over the top of this hill and burning

59:24 houses and We saw it when the the Palisades

59:28 thing was start I you know from our house there's

59:30 kind of a little mountain that comes up

59:32 on the back and I hiked up there and was watching

59:35 it and you could see the smoke and then

59:36 you could like start seeing little flickers of the flames.

59:40 And then it was just like somebody dumped gasoline on this thing and I

59:43 mean the flame shot up hundreds of feet into the air and my wife

59:50 is on the balcony you know the house and I'm kind of up

59:53 on this little mountain I'm looking over looking

59:54 in her eyes I'm like start packing up.

59:58 It's um I'll start I'll go hook up the horse trailer I'll

1:00:00 be up there I said let's load up and just and you

1:00:04 know the wind was blowing uh like offshore then you know

1:00:08 so you the fire is like all on the coast you know.

1:00:11 And just depending on where that how that wind is blowing you know

1:00:15 at the beginning it was blowing offshore and then within a half an hour it

1:00:19 just shot up the coastline and just ripped up through Malibu and burned all

1:00:23 that coast like that's the uh the stuff that you always thought was the safest.

1:00:27 Right.

1:00:28 You know.

1:00:28 Yeah.

1:00:29 And then the next day the wind shifts coming back on shore and it blows it back

1:00:33 towards Burbank you know going back up like

1:00:36 the fourth up that way and then the she winds

1:00:38 are shifting again and then coming back across

1:00:41 you know so I was amazed at the through

1:00:45 some of the fires that I've been through seeing

1:00:46 the firefighters up there those guys are incredible man.

1:00:49 Those helicopter pilots uh the airplane pilots seeing

1:00:52 those tankers fly through there I mean it's just incredible

1:00:56 what those guys can do I mean if it

1:00:58 hadn't I mean they they saved that whole canyon.

1:01:01 Yeah.

1:01:01 Up Topanga at least you know it's like man there's so much brush in there

1:01:05 that probably needs to burn that's been accumulating

1:01:08 over years you know and cutting those fire

1:01:11 breaks and seeing them drop the retardant on the ridge lines and stuff and then

1:01:15 watching the wind it's just like man I hats off to those guys you know.

1:01:19 Absolutely.

1:01:20 Yeah.

1:01:20 I mean think about the amount of damage that was done in that fire

1:01:23 and how much more would have been done if it wasn't for the firefighters.

1:01:27 That's how crazy it is.

1:01:28 Yeah.

1:01:30 Yeah, it is.

1:01:31 And I met one of the helicopter pilots.

1:01:34 I was on a flight somewhere and we just happened to be sitting

1:01:37 next to each other and we were talking about it and just you know,

1:01:41 learning from him, you know, about,

1:01:42 you know, the thermals that come up from underneath

1:01:45 and trying to hold those helicopters in, you know,

1:01:49 in formation and all of that stuff and how heavy they are when they're full.

1:01:52 Right.

1:01:53 as soon as you release all that water, whatever is in them, that, you know,

1:01:56 all of a sudden that the power that they got, you know, throttles full throttle,

1:02:00 you know, when they're loaded down and then they drop all that water and then,

1:02:03 you know, trying to get back a hold of it and I never even thought of that.

1:02:07 And then you got then you got an enormous difference.

1:02:10 90 mile an hour winds blowing and, you know,

1:02:13 and you you I could see them from the house, you know,

1:02:15 there'd be like two or three helicopters that would come

1:02:17 in, start dropping water and then they would move out and then

1:02:20 the tank the planes would come in and then helicopters

1:02:24 back in and then you had the guys on the ground,

1:02:27 you know, trying to contain it as well.

1:02:29 Just the the coordinated effort between them,

1:02:32 you know, I can imagine the conversations there.

1:02:35 Hey, man.

1:02:36 It's so crazy that they didn't have the reservoirs ready.

1:02:39 Oh, dude, it's so sad.

1:02:41 I I had Spencer Pratt on, you know, he's running for mayor now.

1:02:45 He's explaining it like how bad it was.

1:02:47 Yeah.

1:02:48 How do you[ __] that up that bad?

1:02:51 It's devastating to hear that it's like you know that that stuff's coming,

1:02:56 you know, and to not be prepared for that is just unacceptable, you know.

1:03:00 incompetence.

1:03:00 Yeah.

1:03:01 It's complete total incompetence and yet they still are there.

1:03:08 Like you you're definitely not good at the job.

1:03:11 And yet you don't take any personal responsibility and you blame everybody else,

1:03:17 and the problem It's just[ __] It's a problem that happens every few years.

1:03:23 Like you're going to get fires, period.

1:03:26 The fact that you don't have a full reservoir is crazy.

1:03:29 It's crazy.

1:03:30 You should dump all your resources into fixing that[ __] reservoir stat.

1:03:34 Get that[ __] filled up.

1:03:36 residents are more prepared than anybody, you know,

1:03:38 cuz I think they just got to where they you can't depend on it, you know?

1:03:42 Mhm.

1:03:43 So I mean I I know our neighbors and stuff have a pretty good program in place.

1:03:47 You know, we'll all get together and talk about, you know,

1:03:49 who's got fire hoses and swimming pools with access to water and where,

1:03:53 you know, evacuation plans or you know,

1:03:56 there's some folks that uh will have horses,

1:03:58 but they don't even have a horse trailer up there and you know,

1:04:00 I'm like, "Okay, I'll come get yours too." Or whatever,

1:04:03 you know, you know, we we need to do and um you

1:04:06 kind of just have to have that mentality, I think, you know?

1:04:09 Yeah, definitely.

1:04:10 Definitely.

1:04:11 It's You know what's really freaking me out about like

1:04:14 the Paradise fires is what is in the ground now?

1:04:19 You know, like how much toxic[ __] got melted into that ground?

1:04:23 Because think about how many people have electric cars now.

1:04:26 Well, the houses old houses, too.

1:04:28 You know what I'm talking about?

1:04:29 Right.

1:04:29 The materials that they're made out of and asbestos or Mhm.

1:04:33 lead and I mean the stuff and the stuff

1:04:35 in the air that was even if you you know,

1:04:37 you were several miles away from the actual fires that the wind

1:04:40 and blowing all the ashes and the smoke and all that stuff over.

1:04:44 Um I remember going back up in there, you know,

1:04:46 weeks and just trying to get stuff out of the house or whatever when they'd let

1:04:50 us back up and you could still it would just make your throat hurt, you know?

1:04:53 Yeah.

1:04:54 Breathing that air and stuff, so Right, that's It's not just wood fire.

1:04:58 Yeah, no, uh-uh.

1:04:59 No.

1:04:59 Like Yeah, wood fire is hard enough, but the chemicals,

1:05:03 burnt TVs and computers and hard drives and electronics and refrigerators.

1:05:10 Treated lumber and like Yeah.

1:05:12 Uh all that shit's going to get in your ground water.

1:05:15 Like it's it's it's on the surface.

1:05:17 It's going to rain.

1:05:18 It's going to seep through.

1:05:20 Like what happens to the water Is anybody checking the water out there?

1:05:24 You know, you got to imagine I doubt it.

1:05:27 Especially like Topanga, I bet a lot of folks have wells.

1:05:30 Don't you think?

1:05:31 I think there's some, you know,

1:05:32 it's definitely all like on septic up there, too.

1:05:35 You know, I mean all the all

1:05:36 of that building code stuff's got pretty crazy up there.

1:05:40 I don't know.

1:05:40 I would say it's a mess.

1:05:42 I would just worry about even breathing the air

1:05:44 that has the dust of all that[ __] in it.

1:05:47 Like I probably wouldn't want to live there anymore.

1:05:50 If if I was in a place where all the houses burnt

1:05:53 to the ground and I knew there was toxic[ __] in the ground,

1:05:55 I'd be like Hey, let's get the[ __] out of here and sell our house to China.

1:06:01 Oh, man.

1:06:03 Cuz that was the other thing Spencer said,

1:06:04 they're the ones who are the number one land buyers in the Palisades.

1:06:07 It's China.

1:06:08 Is it going to be a Is it going to be

1:06:10 a golf course resort up there before we know it?

1:06:12 Who knows?

1:06:13 Yeah, or affordable housing.

1:06:15 Yeah.

1:06:16 One or the other.

1:06:17 I don't know, either.

1:06:18 I don't know, but it's just I I really wonder what

1:06:22 the long-term damage of all those chemicals in the ground is.

1:06:25 It has to be pretty high.

1:06:28 Got to be.

1:06:29 You know, I don't know.

1:06:29 You know, I was talking to some friends of mine

1:06:31 out there the other day that have grown up there,

1:06:33 lived out there their whole lives.

1:06:34 And you know, going over to Channel Islands, you you know,

1:06:36 they got those oil platforms out there in in the water.

1:06:39 And there's been oil spills, obviously,

1:06:41 throughout there through history and um but also like when you're surfing

1:06:45 and stuff like that, there's oil that's been on top of the ground.

1:06:48 It's just like so surface level.

1:06:49 It's been there for millions of years, you know.

1:06:51 And so I don't know, you know.

1:06:54 It's like I'm sure all the toxic stuff that happens

1:06:57 How long does it take for it to dilute, you know?

1:06:59 And there's not much rain or the wind or like what, you know?

1:07:03 I'm not an expert on it,

1:07:04 but I I feel like Mother Nature takes pretty good care of herself.

1:07:08 You know, we're we're the ones in trouble, right?

1:07:11 Right.

1:07:11 Mother nature will sort it out over time,

1:07:14 but I just don't know how good it's going to be for the people that live there.

1:07:17 It can't be it can't be the long-term, you know.

1:07:19 I have a buddy that has a house out there and he lost

1:07:21 his house and it burned down and I asked him about it and he said,

1:07:24 "I think what they're going to do is take all the dirt

1:07:25 out of their backyard and then replace the dirt." And I'm like, "Okay.

1:07:32 I don't know if that's enough.

1:07:34 Like cuz what about his dirt?

1:07:35 What about your neighbor's dirt?

1:07:36 What about the all the toxic[ __] that's in his dirt that's

1:07:38 going to get down into your ground as soon as it rains?

1:07:43 And also the air

1:07:44 all the Roundup and everything else that's coming down, you know.

1:07:47 It's It's just it's uh it's sad, man, you know?

1:07:52 It's sad that's just the kind of the state of it.

1:07:54 It's like it's it seems like just it's so far of a mess

1:07:58 that even the folks that do have answers that do want to fix stuff,

1:08:01 it just kind of becomes impossible for for any solution, you know?

1:08:05 It's like all the red tape and all the hoops and things

1:08:08 and all the permits or whatever you're like you can't even you know?

1:08:13 The road's blocked.

1:08:14 Okay, well before we could even get somebody

1:08:16 out here with a tractor to move the rocks,

1:08:18 you got to call 10 other people to get it approved and then

1:08:20 the process and then it's now and it's like that's the part I'm just like,

1:08:23 man, I wish I could just call Frank down the street with his bulldozer.

1:08:27 We'll just go we'll just go move this right now, you know?

1:08:30 And it's like, you know?

1:08:32 Well, government has increased so much in California

1:08:35 and they just want more regulations so they could

1:08:37 justify more government and so they just regulate themselves

1:08:41 to a place where people just want to leave.

1:08:42 They just go, "Look, I can't[ __] do this anymore.

1:08:44 Let me get out of here." And it's expensive, man.

1:08:47 It's so expensive to live there, you know?

1:08:49 Meanwhile, it's beautiful.

1:08:51 It's such a great place.

1:08:52 They[ __] it up so hard.

1:08:53 It's paradise.

1:08:54 It's paradise.

1:08:55 mountains within like two, three hours you can be in the Sierras,

1:08:59 you can be in the Or the you know, national park, man.

1:09:03 and then swim in the ocean on the same day.

1:09:05 It's gorgeous.

1:09:06 One of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

1:09:08 Yosemite, I mean, get out of town, you know?

1:09:11 Incredible weather.

1:09:12 Kern River, like, man, it's beautiful.

1:09:16 But they got ruined.

1:09:18 They got ruined with progressive politics and bureaucracy

1:09:21 that just ramped up all the control

1:09:24 they have over people to the point where you can't even buy flavored Zyns.

1:09:31 They banned Blackjack.

1:09:33 You can't have Blackjack anymore.

1:09:35 They just stopped Blackjack in the casinos.

1:09:37 They stopped flavored Zyns.

1:09:39 God.

1:09:39 They just They just regulated into oblivion.

1:09:43 There are all these people that want to be They want

1:09:45 to be the mommy of the world and tell you what to do.

1:09:48 Like,[ __] off.

1:09:51 Yeah.

1:09:51 Like,[ __] off with all your goddamn rules.

1:09:53 You're just making your government bigger so you can justify all these[ __]

1:09:58 rules and you need the rules for the government to sustain itself.

1:10:03 So, you just keep adding more rules and adding more government.

1:10:06 Yeah.

1:10:06 We were reading about it the other day.

1:10:07 Like, what was the number that California's government went up

1:10:10 by like 24% and their population went up by like 1%?

1:10:16 I know and now you're run kind of we're running out of places to go.

1:10:20 And now you're kind of running out of places to go.

1:10:23 Yeah.

1:10:24 I'm always looking for hideouts, you know, to kind of get away from.

1:10:27 It's like, man, you you find a spot to go to.

1:10:29 You kind of don't want to tell nobody about I know, right?

1:10:33 That's what I hear about West Texas.

1:10:34 I think that's hard about Montana, you know,

1:10:36 when I first started going up there years ago.

1:10:38 I mean, it was just such a and still is.

1:10:41 It's a paradise.

1:10:42 It's just, you know.

1:10:44 And I I think that's probably what a lot of people are upset about.

1:10:46 They lived up there.

1:10:47 It's like, man, the the secret got out a little bit and I can understand that.

1:10:51 But I get it.

1:10:52 I get it from that perspective.

1:10:53 They got to let that go.

1:10:54 Where's the next place, you know?

1:10:55 The thing about Montana though, or like Wyoming,

1:10:58 another example, is that winter will thin the herd.

1:11:02 It's like West Texas.

1:11:03 Like that's funny.

1:11:05 Same kind of thing like you know Marfa and that and that area, you know.

1:11:08 I grew up all out there going to junior rodeos

1:11:10 and all kinds of stuff and it was just ranches, you know, and you know,

1:11:14 local diners and stuff like that and um you know,

1:11:18 I hear people going out there and buying houses and you know all that stuff.

1:11:21 Then they go out there for like a week and they

1:11:23 realize that the only thing open at night is the Dairy Queen.

1:11:27 They're heading back to New York pretty quick, you know.

1:11:29 Yeah.

1:11:30 But the thing

1:11:31 right about Montana.

1:11:31 Those winters will thin them out, yeah.

1:11:33 gets you.

1:11:34 The winter's rough.

1:11:36 It's cold.

1:11:38 We were uh the first time I ever went hunting was with Rinella.

1:11:41 That's where I got that mule deer that's on the table right there.

1:11:43 Mhm.

1:11:44 And um it was 9° in October and we're camping.

1:11:49 And so we're sleeping on the ground at 9°.

1:11:51 I'm like, bro, how do these[ __] people

1:11:54 And you also you go by these old homesteads.

1:11:58 So they were giving land out there for people.

1:12:00 Mhm.

1:12:01 You just you can get a chunk of land,

1:12:03 just start farming on it and the government

1:12:05 was encouraging people to move there, but yeah.

1:12:07 it's all this like muddy ground.

1:12:11 Like the ground is like mucky.

1:12:13 Like when you hike in it after, you know,

1:12:15 a while, your boots are so heavy Just clay, huh?

1:12:19 cuz they're just thick with this clay.

1:12:20 Yeah, just muck all over your boots.

1:12:23 And so it's not fertile.

1:12:24 It's not good like in the Missouri Breaks, like that area.

1:12:27 Mhm.

1:12:27 It's not good for growing things.

1:12:29 So you find these abandoned homesteads.

1:12:32 It's really eerie.

1:12:33 Yeah.

1:12:34 And you just think like this family that came out here

1:12:36 in like the 1800s and they tried to set up shop and Mhm.

1:12:40 maybe got killed by Indians and you know, maybe all the way.

1:12:44 I I think about my my family.

1:12:46 I just got stories, you know, about them selling in New Mexico and Um, you know,

1:12:51 coming out on a with a on a covered wagon

1:12:53 with maybe a steer and a pig and they're like,

1:12:55 yeah, here's you a bunch of acres and you got to prove it up,

1:12:58 you know, and dig a hole in the ground is what they're living in, a dugout,

1:13:02 you know, and dig a hole in the ground,

1:13:03 that's where you're living and you try to build a ranch out of it

1:13:06 and I always laugh and I always talk to family or my grandparents.

1:13:11 I'm like, why did y'all stop here?

1:13:14 You just like you were so beat down and you're like,

1:13:16 oh, this is the driest, flattest place, you Yeah.

1:13:21 But we're here, the most roughest, you know, I was like,

1:13:23 it's only maybe another thousand miles out to California or just keep going.

1:13:28 They're like, nope, this is it, we're done, you know.

1:13:30 Yeah, I guess people didn't know what they

1:13:32 were going to find if they kept going either.

1:13:34 Like, you want to keep going for like another month?

1:13:37 Oh, yeah, just miles and miles of more desert and no water, you know.

1:13:43 how long would that wagon trail take?

1:13:46 Weeks.

1:13:46 You know, even just like Missouri, Texas and then out to through what even like

1:13:51 just going through West Texas to get to, you know,

1:13:53 Southeast New Mexico and all that and you're in, you know,

1:13:56 that's just rough country and the people have always been tough out there.

1:14:00 And you're a sitting duck.

1:14:02 Yeah.

1:14:02 You're a sitting duck.

1:14:03 You're slow moving with a wagon, pulling the horse and you got all your[ __]

1:14:07 in the wagon and they just looking at you from the hills.

1:14:10 Yeah.

1:14:12 Wasn't glamorous.

1:14:13 No.

1:14:14 I know my, you know, my granddad was pretty tough old guy and is

1:14:19 real a cowboys you'd ever want to know or meet,

1:14:22 you know, but he he wasn't really one to ever brag or, you know,

1:14:27 talk or fantasize or romanticize about the cowboy stuff,

1:14:30 you know, cuz it it wasn't romantic then,

1:14:33 you know, it was survival and it was rough and it was work and you know,

1:14:37 you had no running water and I remember um,

1:14:41 him having a conversation with this guy and he was like some like a tech guy,

1:14:44 you know, he'd been in all this website[ __]

1:14:47 or whatever and he was asking my granddaddy said,

1:14:49 "You know, what's the most, you know,

1:14:50 important invention of your lifetime?" And I think he was expecting my granddad

1:14:54 to say like the computer or the internet

1:14:56 and my granddad said refr- refrigeration.

1:15:00 It was the most important invented, you know, Yeah.

1:15:03 was growing up he was like they had no way to keep their food cold,

1:15:06 you know, other than like root cellar,

1:15:08 you kept it underground, you know, so it was just a perspective,

1:15:11 you know, I think everybody was surprised to hear it, you know.

1:15:14 Well, I think people are so accustomed

1:15:16 to electricity and so accustomed to things like refrigeration.

1:15:19 Yeah.

1:15:19 You just like Or running water, yeah.

1:15:21 Yeah.

1:15:22 Yeah.

1:15:22 I mean, when there was no refrigeration, you had to eat what you had, Mhm.

1:15:27 you know, like that day and then the next day you had to get something else.

1:15:30 Yeah.

1:15:31 And unless you knew a place that was an ice house, Mhm.

1:15:36 you know, that would get a giant chunk of ice and you

1:15:39 could have an ice box and stick it in there and cool things.

1:15:42 Mhm.

1:15:43 Like you're[ __] Yeah.

1:15:45 You're on your own.

1:15:46 Yeah.

1:15:47 Well, you had to learn how to dry meat.

1:15:49 That was a lot of it.

1:15:50 Make pemmican, dry meat, make things that that'll survive and last.

1:15:57 And you know, that's how also how market hunting almost wiped out

1:16:01 all the deer in this country because people needed fresh meat every day.

1:16:04 Mhm.

1:16:05 So, they were just shooting everything that existed.

1:16:08 Yeah.

1:16:08 And then finally they started looking around and going,

1:16:10 "Hey, we lost all the elk.

1:16:12 There's no more deer left.

1:16:13 Like let's Let's make some[ __] regulations

1:16:16 on this shit." And they stopped market hunting.

1:16:19 I did not know that.

1:16:20 Yeah.

1:16:20 That's interesting, yeah.

1:16:21 Beginning of the 1800s by, you know, the time, I guess, I mean,

1:16:27 when did they start doing regulations in terms

1:16:30 of uh hunting regulations in this country?

1:16:34 Cuz obviously they wiped out almost entirely the American bison.

1:16:38 There was all they're almost gone completely.

1:16:40 And you know, a lot of that was just for tongues.

1:16:43 Nah, man.

1:16:44 That's crazy.

1:16:44 Yeah, they they would send them back east.

1:16:46 They'd pickle their tongues.

1:16:47 Didn't Steve uh Rinella have a something like a show on him?

1:16:50 My buddy was telling me about that.

1:16:52 I haven't seen it yet.

1:16:52 They said it's really interesting.

1:16:53 He's talking about the history of the bison and the hunting and all of that.

1:16:56 Yeah.

1:16:57 Yeah, I think his uh book's called American Buffalo.

1:16:59 But, it's really good.

1:17:01 Um First hunting regulations appeared in colonial laws in the 1600s,

1:17:06 mainly as seasonal closed seasons for certain game like deer.

1:17:10 In terms of nationwide US law,

1:17:12 the first major federal game protection statute was the Lacey Act of 1900,

1:17:18 which targeted commercial and market hunting

1:17:20 and interstate trade in illegally taken wildlife.

1:17:25 Yeah, there was elk in every state.

1:17:27 Yeah.

1:17:27 And then, we wiped them out.

1:17:28 And there was deer in every state.

1:17:30 But, now there's more deer than there ever has been before,

1:17:33 which is interesting.

1:17:35 Congress passed the Lacey Act when modern regulations start.

1:17:40 So, the 1900s, most states had game and fish commissions,

1:17:45 hunting seasons, bag limits, and license requirements,

1:17:47 all reinforced by federal laws like

1:17:50 the Lacey Act and later migratory bird protections.

1:17:54 Well, it's amazing that they did that.

1:17:57 We have an amazing system, too.

1:17:59 Like, the the fact that the United States has so much public land.

1:18:03 You know, there's so many different places

1:18:05 where people can go and they can hike,

1:18:07 they can white water raft, they can fish, they can hunt, they can camp.

1:18:11 I mean, we're unlike any country when it comes to that.

1:18:15 It's like, the amount of land that we have that's available

1:18:18 to Americans that every It's public for everybody is[ __] incredible.

1:18:23 Yeah.

1:18:24 I mean, being up in Montana and New Mexico's like that, too, and California.

1:18:27 But, I'm up in Montana where I love, you know, staying in that wilderness area.

1:18:30 Like, that little cabin that I stayed in, you know,

1:18:33 probably didn't have much land with the cabin.

1:18:36 But, man, there's thousands and thousands of acres

1:18:39 of wilderness public land with dirt roads everywhere.

1:18:43 Man, I would you know, on those days off that I had,

1:18:47 I would just drive back in there for miles, man,

1:18:50 and just see the most beautiful country, you know,

1:18:52 and and I'd haul my horse back in the way

1:18:54 to the trail heads and just go explore stuff,

1:18:57 you know, and you'd head go over one ridge into the next,

1:19:01 and there's a waterfall,

1:19:02 and there and there's another drainage, and it's just like you know,

1:19:05 and this is the wilderness area, too.

1:19:07 This isn't even a national park, you know, and I was like,

1:19:09 man, this is is beautiful country as I I've ever seen anywhere.

1:19:15 I never did, you know, I was always on my toes about it,

1:19:19 and I I'd talk, you know, knowing Remy up there, he knew that area really well,

1:19:22 so I'd kind of ask him spots to go check out and about bears and stuff,

1:19:27 and he said, man, there weren't too many

1:19:28 grizzlies back in there, but you never know,

1:19:30 you know, especially coming over from Idaho and stuff like that, so I never did.

1:19:34 I've run into some black bears.

1:19:37 Um, never in any in any wolves and all that, but um,

1:19:41 you know, I don't know, maybe being horseback, too.

1:19:43 I don't know.

1:19:44 A lot of those places I never did, but I definitely had my eyes open.

1:19:50 Yeah, that's another animal that they want

1:19:52 to list again and make them available for hunting,

1:19:55 particularly in Montana and Wyoming.

1:19:57 They just have a lot of grizzlies.

1:19:59 Yeah.

1:20:00 They have a lot, and people don't want you to shoot them.

1:20:03 They think of it as trophy hunting or whatever it is like.

1:20:06 It's tough, man, but man, you live like you said,

1:20:08 you like those folks that live back up in there, you know,

1:20:11 that they all they can have is their neighbors

1:20:12 and people to depend on, you know, and it's like,

1:20:14 man, you get mauled by a bear taking your trash out,

1:20:17 you know, or something like that.

1:20:18 That's what you your experiences with them, and you know,

1:20:23 everybody wants to keep them as pets until they're in the backyard with you.

1:20:28 They don't play by the rules.

1:20:30 They don't play by the rules, and they're 900 lb.

1:20:32 Good luck.

1:20:33 A 900 lb giant[ __] wild animal that eats everything it can.

1:20:38 Yeah, and even like that that lion hanging

1:20:39 around my house is like, man, I'd be cool.

1:20:42 You're you're fine, but once you go on down the road, you know.

1:20:44 Yeah.

1:20:47 I don't need you in my backyard.

1:20:48 The thing is that you can't do anything about it either.

1:20:50 In Texas, you could just shoot them.

1:20:51 Yeah.

1:20:53 And Yeah, we don't have that problem.

1:20:54 Yeah, that's how it should be.

1:20:56 Like you shouldn't have wild monsters living in your yard.

1:21:01 No.

1:21:01 And you should have you should have the the right to decide that for yourself.

1:21:05 100%.

1:21:05 Not only that, they're going to be fine.

1:21:07 They're still going to be plenty of them.

1:21:09 Okay, but it'll probably be a more healthy number

1:21:11 if they get whacked whenever they eat someone's dog.

1:21:14 Yeah, and have a healthy respect for coming in your backyard

1:21:16 or coming after your animals or your kids, yeah.

1:21:19 Yeah, they they should understand that but just like we're so goofy.

1:21:24 We make laws to protect them that don't protect us.

1:21:29 Like help me out.

1:21:30 Like do you love animals more than people?

1:21:33 Like I love animals, but I'm I'm on team people.

1:21:37 Yeah.

1:21:37 100%.

1:21:38 Yeah.

1:21:39 Everybody else is cool, but team people first.

1:21:42 Yeah.

1:21:42 You know, oh, we got monsters in our neighborhood?

1:21:45 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

1:21:46 we got to kill the monsters so that kids can play outside.

1:21:49 You don't have to worry about them getting eaten.

1:21:51 Yeah, me too.

1:21:51 I mean, growing up ranching or farming or what I mean,

1:21:55 that's your job is to take care of animals, you know?

1:21:58 It's animal husbandry.

1:21:59 It's It's That's your job.

1:22:01 I mean, to take care and provide

1:22:04 for these animals to provide food for your family,

1:22:07 you know, and um and the wildlife that's around it, you know,

1:22:10 it's like in to take care of the land and the dirt and the water and the grasses

1:22:15 and all of that stuff has to be supporting

1:22:17 each other to make it all work, you know?

1:22:20 And uh at the end of the day, I just feel like we've just lost touch.

1:22:24 It's cities.

1:22:25 you know?

1:22:26 It's urban environments,

1:22:27 it's unnatural environments that have given people this delusional

1:22:31 idea of what our relationship is with nature.

1:22:34 Mhm.

1:22:34 And you know, people just think food comes from a restaurant.

1:22:38 Yeah.

1:22:39 And you know, the ground is for streets.

1:22:42 Mhm.

1:22:42 And you drive around.

1:22:43 Sidewalks.

1:22:43 Yeah, just pave it all.

1:22:45 It's all just this delusional perspective

1:22:47 that comes from that sort of urban existence.

1:22:51 And I just think that's why people that live

1:22:53 in the country and live in, you know,

1:22:55 environments where you like Alaska,

1:22:57 where you're confronted by nature, they're like more interesting people.

1:23:01 They're They're more robust.

1:23:02 They're cooler.

1:23:04 Were you saying out there earlier that you rode bulls?

1:23:08 Mhm.

1:23:08 Yeah.

1:23:09 Dude.

1:23:11 How many times?

1:23:13 Shoot, that started when I was a kid, you know,

1:23:15 riding steers when I was like 10 in the junior rodeos and then

1:23:18 You were 10 years old and someone let you ride a[ __] steer?

1:23:22 Really?

1:23:24 That's just like It was like little league baseball, you know, where I grew up.

1:23:29 So, a steer is a bull that doesn't have its nuts.

1:23:32 Yeah.

1:23:32 And so, how much less do they kick when they don't have their nuts?

1:23:36 Oh, they're a lot They're pretty docile.

1:23:39 Oh, you're on the video.

1:23:40 How old are you here?

1:23:41 This is I was like 17.

1:23:43 This is in uh Monterey, Mexico, actually.

1:23:46 Wow.

1:23:48 Why in Mexico?

1:23:49 Look at you, dog.

1:23:52 Damn, that's crazy.

1:23:55 Damn, dude, you're good.

1:23:57 And you got off without getting stomped, too.

1:24:00 Is it just knowing when to release?

1:24:02 Yeah, you got to know You got to know when to get off.

1:24:05 That's for sure.

1:24:06 And right there.

1:24:06 Uh-huh.

1:24:07 You're like, that's a wrap.

1:24:08 Yeah, he kind of bucked me off there.

1:24:10 He He kind of had me over to the side there,

1:24:12 you know, but that's a good time to check out.

1:24:14 There's like that gray zone, you know.

1:24:16 Either That or you hang on and you end up underneath him.

1:24:19 You You out when you were 10 years old, though.

1:24:21 How wild are your parents?

1:24:23 Like, yeah, that's a good age.

1:24:24 Yeah, well, they you know, my they ranched and grew up out there,

1:24:27 and my my uncle rode bulls professionally, and yeah,

1:24:31 and uh that's kind of how I got into it, too.

1:24:34 I looked up to him a lot,

1:24:35 and uh see pictures of him riding bulls, and then it was just around,

1:24:39 and I was like, I want to go try that, you know,

1:24:41 and and man, I just got the bug for it like super young.

1:24:45 I was like, just ate up with it.

1:24:47 Just Wow, from 10 years old.

1:24:49 That's nuts.

1:24:50 Yeah.

1:24:51 And so, how do you teach someone how to fall

1:24:53 off of a bull without getting stomped when they're 10?

1:24:57 Well, when you're riding those little steers, you know,

1:24:59 a lot of time they they cut bulls and turn

1:25:00 them into steers cuz it makes them a lot more docile.

1:25:03 what are you talking Steers are, you know,

1:25:04 typically like 600 lb, 6 700 lb, you know,

1:25:09 compared to 1,500 lb bull that's aggressive and you know,

1:25:13 back that wide and horns like that, you know.

1:25:16 They're like little steer, you know, I remember my dad or uncle would get

1:25:19 in the chute with me and hold their horns, you know,

1:25:22 and like the other time they just kind of run out there and jump

1:25:24 and kick and just fall off on the side, yeah, not too bad.

1:25:28 Um and then you kind of graduate up into like the junior bulls,

1:25:32 and then the bigger bulls,

1:25:33 and then the all and then the harder they buck, you know.

1:25:37 So, there's kind of different levels you can progress as you as you go.

1:25:41 Uh but it was a lot different deal back then when I was riding.

1:25:43 It was really before the PBR started, you know, there was no helmets,

1:25:47 there was no vests, there's like none of that stuff.

1:25:49 It was just old school rodeo, you know.

1:25:53 But at the same time, I I say that, but you know,

1:25:56 it's it's it's an evolved in such a sport now.

1:25:59 Like, the bulls are just so much ranker now than they were back then, you know.

1:26:03 It's like, now they're breeding them like race horses

1:26:05 and the genetics where every one of those bulls, you know, bucks, you know,

1:26:10 and like you got to go to get on three or four of them in a night,

1:26:12 you know, back when I was doing it.

1:26:14 We'd go to the there were still kind of full

1:26:16 rodeos with all the other events and you know,

1:26:19 out of 15 or 20 bulls there might be one

1:26:21 or two in there that were like bad to get on.

1:26:23 They would hurt you, you know.

1:26:25 The rest of them were were pretty ridable,

1:26:27 you know, just to say so and you know,

1:26:30 we're smoking cigarettes and drinking beer back behind the shoots so you know,

1:26:33 that kind of a thing, you know,

1:26:35 we weren't training and doing yoga and I like all these guys are today.

1:26:42 You know, but I I loved it.

1:26:43 I I had so much fun and I loved the road part of it, you know,

1:26:46 getting the truck with your best buds and go down the road

1:26:50 on the weekends and there's always a band playing and um you know,

1:26:54 it's just it was so much fun.

1:26:55 I loved the culture of it and it's just a good good times, you know.

1:27:00 How many times do you think you've rode bulls?

1:27:02 I mean, I rode till I was about 23.

1:27:05 From 10 to 23?

1:27:06 Mhm.

1:27:07 Wow.

1:27:07 That was all I ever wanted to do.

1:27:09 I was like yeah, wanted to just ride bulls, yeah.

1:27:12 And you know, I rode in high school, rode junior rodeos,

1:27:16 rode bulls in high school and then I went to Tarleton

1:27:18 State in Stephenville and rode bulls for Tarleton and then I got

1:27:23 my pro card for a couple of years and that was when

1:27:26 like the PBR was like starting up and all of that and Wow.

1:27:34 It got intense.

1:27:36 What Jamie?

1:27:37 The one in the picture I just lost he was backwards on it.

1:27:39 Oh yeah, I was probably getting I was probably getting dusted.

1:27:43 Oh no, that's not me.

1:27:44 not backwards.

1:27:45 That's not backwards though.

1:27:46 is riding backwards though.

1:27:48 Yeah, he is backwards.

1:27:50 I don't know if that was on purpose.

1:27:54 That seems like a ridiculous choice.

1:27:55 it off if he did.

1:27:57 Yeah.

1:27:57 What a terrible choice.

1:28:00 Yeah.

1:28:01 It was cool though.

1:28:02 I I loved it, man.

1:28:03 I loved it.

1:28:05 How do you go from that to anything else?

1:28:08 Like how do you stop riding bulls and eventually become an actor and a singer.

1:28:13 It was all very much a kind of a natural progression, you know?

1:28:17 Since I was a kid at the junior rodeos,

1:28:19 there was always a dance afterward and a band playing, you know?

1:28:21 And it's a very much a family community deal, you know?

1:28:25 Like you go to these towns and you know,

1:28:27 there's the junior the rodeo was going on and then

1:28:29 the dances street dance and uh food and music and you know,

1:28:35 growing up listening to bands play, especially in Texas, you know?

1:28:37 You got all the guys like Gary P.

1:28:39 Nunn.

1:28:39 You remember he he always played the dance halls and you

1:28:42 get Robert Earl Keen and some of the, you know,

1:28:45 going to hearing those bands and um I moved to Laredo,

1:28:49 Texas when I was like 16 or 17 when my dad and my mother had bought me a guitar.

1:28:55 And uh didn't know how to play it much and uh walked into this place my dad was

1:29:00 living at and he was playing dominoes with these guys

1:29:02 and this guy saw my guitar and he's like,

1:29:05 "Yeah, you know how to play that thing?" I said, "No." And he said, "Well,

1:29:08 let me see it." And he picked it up

1:29:10 and he played this killer like mariachi song called La Malagueña.

1:29:13 And I was just fascinated with it.

1:29:15 I was just like, "Wow, I can't believe you made that guitar sound like that, you

1:29:18 know?" I've been dragging that thing around for a couple years.

1:29:21 I didn't even know how to tune it up.

1:29:22 And uh he's like, "You want to learn how to play this guitar?" I said,

1:29:25 "Yeah." He said, "Let me show you this song." And he taught me the Malagueña.

1:29:30 It had a couple little parts, you know, a finger picking part, a strumming part.

1:29:34 And uh it really kind of gave me the that foundation, you know?

1:29:37 Just kind of those few little tools.

1:29:39 And then I went up to Stephenville to to ride bulls

1:29:41 at Tarleton after that and uh a couple of other friends that I'd

1:29:45 met there that rode it could play the guitar a little bit

1:29:48 and they had bands that played every weekend uh in the town.

1:29:51 There's a little bar there called City Limits

1:29:52 where all these bands would come play like

1:29:54 Jason Boland and the Cross Canadian Ragweed guys

1:29:57 and Pat Green and uh Robert Earl Keen,

1:30:00 like all the Texas guys would come play, you know?

1:30:02 So I was like I went from being on the border and just

1:30:06 kind of just mostly like the corridos and Tejano bands that I would see,

1:30:09 which was really cool.

1:30:10 But when I got up there, I was like, "Oh man,

1:30:11 there's all these like cool kind of song, you know,

1:30:14 guys writing the original music and songs and playing in bands."

1:30:18 And um would we'd go watch them all the time.

1:30:21 And uh as I was still rodeoing,

1:30:23 I the only song I knew was that um Malagueña tune.

1:30:27 So, I was like, "I got to come up with some new stuff.

1:30:29 It's all I know how to play, you know?" So,

1:30:31 I went and got a book of chords to teach

1:30:32 myself some new chords on the guitar and I'd just

1:30:35 learn one or two at a time and I'd start

1:30:37 making up songs about our adventures on the weekends, you know?

1:30:40 A lot of it was just sitting in the back of the truck

1:30:42 and being in places where you didn't have radio signal or, you know,

1:30:46 nothing to really listen to.

1:30:47 You're tired listening to the same old stuff and I'd make up songs

1:30:50 and then whatever town we would get to, my buddies would be like,

1:30:53 "Man, play that song you you were singing in the backseat,

1:30:55 you know?" And And so, that's how the whole songwriting thing started.

1:30:59 And then I ended up getting a job working for a guy named Mack Altizer.

1:31:04 He had a rodeo company called Bad Company Rodeo in Del Rio.

1:31:08 And I I'd ridden bulls at some of his rodeos

1:31:11 and knew him and my uncle had known him, you know, over the years.

1:31:14 And so, I was kind of familiar

1:31:15 with with uh that whole thing and uh started working

1:31:19 for him on the ranch and helping with some

1:31:21 of the rodeo stuff and still riding bulls.

1:31:23 And he found out that I could play the guitar and and sing a few songs.

1:31:28 And he always had a party at the rodeo.

1:31:29 He was kind of notorious and famous for having like just awesome parties.

1:31:33 And he's like, "Man, all right, Bingham, bring your guitar.

1:31:35 You're going to play like the after-party,

1:31:37 you know?" And pull the flatbed trailer up there

1:31:39 for the hospitality tent for all the contestants after the rodeo.

1:31:41 And those were like the first he really encouraged

1:31:45 me to like start playing for people and doing that.

1:31:47 And then it would just spill over into the bars afterwards, after the rodeo.

1:31:51 Everybody would end up going to the bar.

1:31:52 And they were like, "Bingham,

1:31:54 bring your guitar with you." And uh I started getting gigs in the bars.

1:31:58 The bars would ask me to if I wanted to come back and play.

1:32:01 And just after like I feel like a few years of that, it was just like,

1:32:05 you know, I was kind of a weekend where I was riding bulls.

1:32:08 I I was definitely not going to making a living doing it.

1:32:10 Always had to have a day job during the week,

1:32:13 you know, either working on the ranch or doing something.

1:32:16 And uh I started getting to where I could go

1:32:18 to these bars and make like a hundred bucks in tips,

1:32:20 you know, within a couple of hours and get free beer, free food.

1:32:24 And I was like, "Man, this is almost as much as I made

1:32:27 all day digging holes." with the shovel, you know.

1:32:31 It didn't take me long to figure out that that was pretty cool.

1:32:33 And uh I was just like, "I'm going to stick with it,

1:32:37 you know." What a organic sort of a journey,

1:32:41 you know, like a natural progression.

1:32:44 Yeah, and I didn't have high expectations, you know,

1:32:46 but I just like And I I was talking about kind

1:32:49 of community in this Austin area and in Texas in general.

1:32:52 It's just like, "Man, people were so supportive,

1:32:54 man." I just like, if you had a song, they'd play it.

1:32:56 People loved live music.

1:32:57 They're like, "Yeah, get up and play, you know,

1:32:58 like Mac with the rodeo company and all the guys that worked there,

1:33:02 Dave Jennings and Casey and Smurf.

1:33:06 There's a whole crew, the the Bad Company crew from those days.

1:33:08 And they always had kind of the Bad Company house band,

1:33:11 too, where everybody would get up and try to play a song.

1:33:13 And it's just like, "Man, we don't care if it's any good or not.

1:33:16 Just get up there and play.

1:33:17 We're all We're all in it together." And there were so many like places

1:33:20 that were like that that I I I don't think if I was in that environment,

1:33:23 I probably never pursued it, you know.

1:33:26 I had so many people, you know,

1:33:27 supporting you and encouraging you to try it and it took me a long time,

1:33:31 you know, to uh work stuff out and learn cuz I

1:33:35 didn't have any really formal music musical background or lessons or training.

1:33:40 I didn't really just learn it on the road

1:33:41 and playing in bars and from other musicians, you know.

1:33:45 Really?

1:33:45 So, no lessons at all?

1:33:47 Just figuring it out along the way?

1:33:49 Yeah.

1:33:50 Well, they got you know, they got taught me the La Malagueña there,

1:33:52 but then after that it was just, you know,

1:33:56 anybody else who had a guitar and might know a song,

1:33:58 you know, I'm like, "Oh, what a cool How do you play that chord?" You know,

1:34:00 they're like, "Oh, you play it like this, you know." Yeah.

1:34:05 Wow.

1:34:06 So, how many years were you doing that before you got Yellowstone?

1:34:13 Oh gosh, for a while.

1:34:14 I mean, I think my you know, I was 22 or something like that in Stephenville,

1:34:22 you know, Ryan Bingham starting to play songs, trying to play gigs.

1:34:26 Um after the, you know,

1:34:29 ended up moving down here to New Braunfels in the Austin area,

1:34:33 playing music for a while,

1:34:34 and then ended up going out to Los Angeles and playing,

1:34:37 and then hit the road with a band for I think I had four or five albums or so,

1:34:43 you know, out, you know, and been touring for five or six years.

1:34:46 I think I How old was I?

1:34:48 Like when Yellowstone started?

1:34:52 Like 36, 37, so yeah, I'd been playing doing the music stuff for a long time.

1:34:59 Hm, and so how did the Yellowstone How did you go from music to Yellowstone?

1:35:02 Like how did you even Did you do any act- acting before that?

1:35:06 No, I'd been one of I'd I'd done a film with Jeff

1:35:08 Bridges years ago called Crazy Heart and wrote some songs for that movie.

1:35:13 That was really my own thing.

1:35:15 That was a good movie.

1:35:17 It was pretty cool, you know,

1:35:18 I was I was just like he Jeff Bridges plays a musician in the show

1:35:22 and I and we're like the backup band at the bowling alley for one of the scenes,

1:35:26 you know, which was really cool.

1:35:28 Um and then written some songs for some other films and some TV shows since

1:35:33 then and I I met a guy named John Linson in in Los Angeles, a producer,

1:35:39 and his him and his dad, Art Linson, they did like Sons of Anarchy,

1:35:43 bunch of shows and a bunch of great movies and um he introduced me to Taylor.

1:35:49 And Taylor was I think it was that movie Wind River, his first movie.

1:35:54 You know, I'd met Taylor and just kind of talk about music and stuff,

1:35:58 and he wanted me to write a song for Wind River.

1:36:00 And I'd given it a shot a couple times,

1:36:02 never really had anything that fit for what he wanted,

1:36:05 but he ended up using a song that I'd already written.

1:36:08 And um and we just kind of kept in touch,

1:36:10 and then when the Yellowstone thing came up,

1:36:12 um he got in touch again about writing some songs for the show.

1:36:16 And then he learned that I used to do all the rodeo stuff, I think,

1:36:18 and grew up ranching, and he said, "Well, shoot, you can do a lot of this stuff.

1:36:22 I got to find a way to get you in the show,

1:36:24 you know." And it literally went from the conversation.

1:36:27 He's like, "Well, I don't I don't know what I'm going to do with you,

1:36:30 but I'm a I'll find something to do with you,

1:36:31 you know." And and he literally said it.

1:36:33 He's like, "You know, if you do good, I'll you know,

1:36:36 he goes, 'If you suck, I'll kill you off.

1:36:37 If you do good, I'll keep you on.'" Something like that, you know.

1:36:42 And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going to no formal acting like training or anything?

1:36:47 No, not at all.

1:36:49 That's what's amazing.

1:36:50 Do you really good.

1:36:51 Oh, I appreciate that, you know.

1:36:53 I I get to kind of play a cowboy and be a little bit about of myself.

1:36:57 Yeah, but it's that role's got some complexity to it.

1:37:01 It's not just a cowboy.

1:37:03 It's like you've got some complicated scenes, you know,

1:37:06 some emotional scenes, some deep scenes, and you're really good, man.

1:37:10 Thank you.

1:37:10 That's impressive.

1:37:11 I appreciate that.

1:37:12 It was I I enjoyed it, you know.

1:37:14 I hadn't done much acting at all, and um yeah,

1:37:17 I got to give a lot of credit to the actors that are on the show, too, you know,

1:37:20 that those folks that have really studied

1:37:22 it and paid their dues learning that craft,

1:37:25 you know, they really create the environment,

1:37:28 you know, especially for me not knowing much about it,

1:37:31 you know, and just kind of being a part of the scene.

1:37:33 Like, they're so good that they make you react in a certain way.

1:37:38 Right.

1:37:38 they they know how to get it out of you.

1:37:40 Whether you know, Cole and Yeah.

1:37:42 Kelly and Luke and all those folks, you know,

1:37:44 they like they they know how to set up the scene.

1:37:46 They know what they're doing.

1:37:47 So, they already kind of have the whole thing set up.

1:37:50 And so, when I walk into a scene and they say their line to me,

1:37:53 it's just like, "Oh, okay.

1:37:55 Yeah, I got to answer." Right.

1:37:57 I'm just like kind of like naturally, you know, answering that, you know?

1:38:01 Right.

1:38:01 Right.

1:38:02 Yeah, it's like if you work with a really good actor,

1:38:04 sometimes you forget they're acting.

1:38:06 You're like, "Oh, like oh yeah,

1:38:08 we're we're acting." Like you seem like this is really happening.

1:38:11 Yeah.

1:38:11 Yeah.

1:38:12 Yeah, for me, like I think there was moments

1:38:14 where I thought it was really happening, you know?

1:38:16 How long did it take before you got comfortable like doing that on camera?

1:38:19 Still not.

1:38:20 Really?

1:38:21 Yeah, still not.

1:38:22 Yeah.

1:38:22 Well, you play it off good.

1:38:24 Well, thanks, you know?

1:38:25 I think some of it comes from the riding bulls, you know,

1:38:27 you learn how to channel that anxiety or or fear into just like,

1:38:31 "Oh, okay, it's go time.

1:38:32 Let's just like Dude.

1:38:34 pull it together and and channel that, you know?

1:38:37 If you could ride a bull, I think you could kind of do basically anything.

1:38:41 Man, I you know, that's one thing my uncle taught me when I was young, you know,

1:38:45 he he was really quick to be like, "Man, it doesn't matter how strong you are,

1:38:49 you know, it's not about it's all mental, it's all in your mind,

1:38:52 and it's all uh it's not I think I can, it's I know I can and I will." Mhm.

1:38:59 You know, and he goes, "If you don't If you don't believe that every time you go

1:39:01 put your rope on one of those on their backs," he's like,

1:39:05 "it ain't going to happen." Yeah.

1:39:06 he says he he says you don't It's not being cocky,

1:39:08 it's just being confident, you know, and believing in yourself and and having

1:39:14 that that power of mind over matter, you know?

1:39:17 Yeah, if you could do that, acting's easy.

1:39:19 And take that in anything in life, you know?

1:39:21 And I and I do cuz I I definitely have moments where, you know, I'm like, "Woof.

1:39:26 Okay, take a deep breath.

1:39:28 It's go time.

1:39:29 Let's go, you know?

1:39:30 Let's channel that." having more than a decade of doing that with bulls, Mhm.

1:39:36 like that that's so uncontrollable.

1:39:39 Like it is like you're at the mercy of fate and how this plays out.

1:39:45 Yeah.

1:39:45 And you have this enormous beast and you've chosen to scare the[ __] out

1:39:50 of yourself and get on top of this thing and try to ride it.

1:39:53 to join join the dance, you know.

1:39:55 Yeah.

1:39:55 If you can do that, if you can do that and be

1:39:57 successful at that, I kind of think you could do anything.

1:40:01 I think that that I mean, I wouldn't want my kid to do it at 10,

1:40:04 but[ __] it's probably very If they could survive, pretty valuable.

1:40:08 I laugh I really picked two of the easiest professions, you know,

1:40:12 riding bulls and playing music like Right,

1:40:14 two two that have the least amount of success ratio.

1:40:19 task, you know.

1:40:20 Well, you did you going to ever get any serious injuries?

1:40:23 Uh I've You know, I was fortunate like not serious injuries.

1:40:28 I did I There's one of the worst I ever I got knocked all these teeth out.

1:40:31 I got jerked down one night in Weatherford and um

1:40:34 took my lip off and my teeth went through down here and I These are all fake up

1:40:39 here and my lip was just hanging by a thread.

1:40:42 What was wild it didn't knock me out, which was wild though.

1:40:45 I got on this bull and uh I remember it was in Weatherford,

1:40:48 Texas and uh it's got a uh Butler Arena there.

1:40:53 And he had this um little Angus bull there.

1:40:56 Didn't have horns on him, little muley.

1:40:58 And uh usually you can go up to the guys

1:40:59 that own the bulls and a lot of the bulls have patterns,

1:41:02 you know, that they that they'll do over and over,

1:41:04 you know, so you can kind of talk to the stock contractor,

1:41:06 the guys that own them and be like, "Hey, you know,

1:41:07 what's this bull do generally do?" And he's like, "Ah,

1:41:10 most time they'll take two jumps out and they spin to the left."

1:41:13 Or they take two jumps and they go to the right.

1:41:15 Or ah, they just, you know, they'll jump kick around and make a circle.

1:41:18 And he goes, "Man, he goes, I don't know." He's like,

1:41:20 "The last two times I bucked, he's never he hadn't been ridden.

1:41:23 He'll usually jumps out there and just spins right in the gate." And he said,

1:41:26 "Nobody's really ridden him past three or four seconds,

1:41:28 so cuz I don't know what he's going to do after that." And sure enough,

1:41:32 that's what happened.

1:41:33 I got on him and I it jumped out and just got it on right there in the gate,

1:41:38 just spinning right there.

1:41:39 And I rode him through it like three or four rounds.

1:41:42 And after I rode him, like I think the bull didn't know what to do next.

1:41:45 He got a little frustrated and he just stopped.

1:41:47 And just stopped dead still and just blowing and just you know, just mad.

1:41:53 And uh you never really want to jump off of them when they're

1:41:56 still like that cuz you just you'll fall right beside them, you know?

1:41:59 So, you want them to have a little momentum so when you you know,

1:42:02 you're checking out they can you can get away from them.

1:42:05 Right.

1:42:05 And so I spurred him a little bit to get him to jump.

1:42:08 So, when he jumped I could jump off.

1:42:10 But when I spurred him it just jumped off straight

1:42:13 up off the ground like a cat off all fours.

1:42:16 And when he came crashing when he jumped up like that I you know,

1:42:19 kind of rocked me back on back like that.

1:42:21 My hand's still tied in the rope.

1:42:23 And then when he came down he just brought all that jerk me down with the force

1:42:27 and I came forward and he threw his head back and I just head butted him.

1:42:33 And then when he did then of my hand was still caught in the rope and then

1:42:35 he took off running around just dragged me

1:42:37 around and just stomped the crap out of me.

1:42:41 You know, for a bit and I finally got loose and uh

1:42:44 I remember running over to the fence and I just you know,

1:42:47 I just kind of had my arms on the fence and I could see all the blood just kind

1:42:50 of pouring down all over me and one of the bull

1:42:52 fighters ran up and he looks at me and goes,

1:42:54 "Oh, buddy." He's like, "Woo." And uh So,

1:43:00 they have to stitch your lip lip back on?

1:43:03 Yeah, you know, and the shock was just yeah, I didn't feel anything.

1:43:06 Like I was just like in shock and I was like, "Oh, man." You know,

1:43:09 I remember like my girlfriend was there from high school

1:43:11 and my buddy and um we drove to the little you know,

1:43:15 they're like, "You want to call an ambulance?" I was like, "Nah,

1:43:16 I don't want to have health insurance and call an ambulance,

1:43:19 you know?" Um got in my buddy's car and we drove over to the emergency

1:43:23 room in Weatherford and I go in and the nurse she's just like,

1:43:27 "Oh, man." She's like, "We can't do anything for you here.

1:43:30 You're going to have to go to like Dallas to like trauma, You know,

1:43:32 you're going to get like a oral surgeon to put you back together.

1:43:36 And uh she goes, "You want me to, you know,

1:43:38 get you an ambulance here?" And I was like, "No, I think we can make it,

1:43:42 you know." And she's like she gave me some pain pills.

1:43:45 She goes, "Don't take these now." She goes,

1:43:46 "Hold on to these and then when you get to Dallas,

1:43:49 then take them because you're probably going to have to wait, you know,

1:43:51 before they can because be 3:00 or 4:00

1:43:53 in the morning before they can get somebody in there

1:43:56 to see us." And uh sure enough we got

1:43:58 to Dallas and I'm just sitting there in the waiting room.

1:44:00 And I had a rag and I was just holding my mouth together.

1:44:04 And uh the shock wore off, man,

1:44:06 and then it's uh you know, I was starting to feel it.

1:44:10 Took those pain meds and then doctor came in and held me

1:44:14 back and gave me big shot in the roof of my mouth,

1:44:16 try to numb everything and just I think it took him longer to clean it all up,

1:44:20 you know, pull all the hair and dirt out

1:44:22 of there and sew me up and the teeth Oh, it was an ordeal, you know, for sure.

1:44:27 For months after that, you know, getting the dental work done, all that crap.

1:44:31 So, how was the the lip hanging off?

1:44:35 It I It bit it all It wouldn't came all the way off.

1:44:38 It was just hanging on right here by the side, so it was just hanging down.

1:44:41 And so they just had to stitch the lower part

1:44:43 to the upper part and put it all together again?

1:44:45 Yeah, just all across right through the middle and kind of If I shave,

1:44:48 I got a big scar that kind of goes down there.

1:44:50 And then they went through down here.

1:44:52 Um so I got some stitches down there and then most

1:44:55 of the stitches were all in my my gums and all of that stuff.

1:44:58 had to put like posts and implants and all that stuff in you.

1:45:01 Wow.

1:45:02 Yeah.

1:45:02 Yeah.

1:45:03 That[ __] takes forever, huh?

1:45:04 Kind of knocked the front four out and then

1:45:06 it just dominoed the rest of them, man.

1:45:07 I just Riding bulls with no health insurance is wild.

1:45:15 That's crazy, man.

1:45:17 That's crazy.

1:45:20 Yeah, that was just life back then for me, you know.

1:45:23 And then going into the music stuff was like I don't know.

1:45:28 I just wasn't really scared about it or even

1:45:30 the expectations of making it or I mean

1:45:32 to me at the time I had a truck and a camper on it and I was like,

1:45:36 man, I was like I got no bills.

1:45:38 I got no responsibilities.

1:45:40 I'm just like go make a hundred bucks a night playing music in a bar.

1:45:43 I was like this is the dream, you know, I'm like I made I made it.

1:45:46 Yeah.

1:45:49 Well, I think when you've done something super super difficult,

1:45:52 everything else seems easier.

1:45:55 And if you've done what you did with riding bulls for that long,

1:45:59 like the music business is like what's the worst that can happen?

1:46:03 Yeah.

1:46:03 Even the travel part, you know, like you know,

1:46:05 in the early days of playing when I really decided

1:46:07 I was going to try to make a run and play, you know, and it was like Oh, what?

1:46:11 We got to get in the van and go drive around and Right.

1:46:15 play in bars, you know?

1:46:16 I was like we've been doing that rodeoing for years, you know,

1:46:19 we used to sleep in the back of the truck or whatever and it was fun for us.

1:46:22 You know, we loved it.

1:46:23 So the idea was like starving on the road playing in a band playing music.

1:46:27 I was like,[ __] let's go,

1:46:28 you And and getting a guaranteed paycheck every night, you know?

1:46:35 Right, the gratitude you must have.

1:46:38 bulls, I mean, at the time, you know, you walked away with nothing.

1:46:40 Right.

1:46:41 You know, a busted a busted lip, nothing, you know.

1:46:44 Yeah, and no health insurance and you're risking your life

1:46:47 and there's not a bunch people that love you.

1:46:49 No.

1:46:50 Yeah.

1:46:51 Yeah.

1:46:52 Well, it's a great base to start out from, you know?

1:46:56 I mean, it sounds like it's almost like

1:46:59 the universe engineered this path for you to go down.

1:47:02 Like if you wanted to pick a path

1:47:04 that would bring you to where you are right now,

1:47:06 it it is the perfect set of circumstances.

1:47:09 I I I I look at it all the time, you know,

1:47:13 just from an outside perspective, I guess, and just like, wow,

1:47:16 how in the world all this come together and just so a lot of luck

1:47:21 and perseverance or whatever and I I wouldn't say I haven't worked hard at it,

1:47:25 you know, I feel like I have and all that, but it there's

1:47:27 a lot of luck out there and a lot of good people, too, you know.

1:47:30 A lot of good people helped me out along the way

1:47:33 and gave me gas money and gave me a place to sleep,

1:47:36 a place to to eat and helped us get other gigs and other I mean,

1:47:39 I remember going from one town to the next

1:47:42 and not having gas money to get to the next

1:47:44 and having no plan other than like let's

1:47:46 just head west or head east and you know, you'd go play at a bar and sure

1:47:51 enough there'd be somebody there that would be like,

1:47:54 "Oh man, y'all should come back to my house.

1:47:55 We'll have bonfire and play some songs." And he's like, "Oh,

1:47:57 my brother's got a bar in Phoenix." And you know,

1:48:00 he's like, "Call them on your way out." You know,

1:48:02 we'd go there and and we'd always like chop firewood or wash

1:48:06 dishes or we'd mow your lawn or wash your car on the way,

1:48:08 too, to like to get gas money and keep on going, you know.

1:48:11 Wow.

1:48:12 So, that was just kind of how I always I feel

1:48:15 like I learned early if if you were willing to help yourself,

1:48:18 you know, there's people would help you all day long.

1:48:20 I think luck is a factor,

1:48:24 but it's only a factor if you've already had all those other experiences.

1:48:30 Like think about it, if you hadn't ridden bulls,

1:48:32 you hadn't gone through all the ranching, all the hard labor,

1:48:35 all the different things,

1:48:37 then like you probably wouldn't have capitalized on that luck the same way.

1:48:41 No, not at all, huh.

1:48:43 Your character wouldn't be the same.

1:48:45 No.

1:48:45 You know, that's like part part of who you are

1:48:48 is the character that you've developed from what you've done.

1:48:52 It kind of conditioned me to do it in a way in a big way.

1:48:55 And it seems like it's your life it almost like

1:48:57 it's engineered for this to happen the way it happened.

1:49:00 Mhm.

1:49:00 Which is kind of crazy.

1:49:01 It's been cool, man.

1:49:02 I feel Very storybook.

1:49:05 Mhm.

1:49:05 You know?

1:49:06 Yeah.

1:49:06 Very like movie.

1:49:08 Like a plot in a movie.

1:49:10 Guy was a cowboy, bull rider, starts singing songs, people are like,

1:49:13 "Hey, you should probably do this for a living." And then someone's like,

1:49:17 "Hey man, you should be on TV." You know, and the next thing you know,

1:49:21 you're on one of the biggest hits in the world.

1:49:23 like, that's that song, you know, one day they're going to put me in the movie.

1:49:26 I was like, I was like, how about living this thing right now, you know?

1:49:31 It's like I know, I meet people all the time and they're like,

1:49:33 oh like you know, they can't really believe where I'm from or whatever.

1:49:39 They just think it's some like made-up story or whatever.

1:49:41 I'm like, all right, yeah, all right, man, you know.

1:49:44 Well, it seems like a story that someone would make

1:49:46 up if they wanted to pretend to be a cowboy.

1:49:48 Yeah.

1:49:49 Well, I think a lot of people have.

1:49:50 I bet, right?

1:49:51 I bet.

1:49:52 Yeah.

1:49:53 And a lot of people still do.

1:49:54 Yeah.

1:49:55 Isn't that funny?

1:49:56 Uh-huh.

1:49:57 That's funny.

1:49:57 That's like stolen valor almost.

1:50:00 Yeah.

1:50:00 You know what I mean?

1:50:01 In all kinds of stuff, you know, professions or whatever,

1:50:04 you know, people pretend to be the Oh, yeah.

1:50:06 What it is.

1:50:07 Oh, yeah.

1:50:07 Would you mind if I went to the restroom real quick?

1:50:09 Oh, no, no, no, no, not at all.

1:50:11 I totally understand.

1:50:11 Go ahead.

1:50:11 I want to keep talking about I don't want to stop this, but

1:50:14 pause, take a leak, we'll be right back, folks.

1:50:17 And we're back.

1:50:19 Yeah, it's um it's kind of funny that people

1:50:21 would want to fake the life that you've lived,

1:50:24 but that is such a romantic story.

1:50:27 Like it's such a like it's such a movie